The Infrared Afterglow of Supermassive Black Hole Mergers

Abstract

We model the spectra and light curves of circumbinary accretion disks during the time after the central black holes merge. The most immediate effect of this merger is the dissipation of energy in the outer regions of the disk due to the gravitational wave energy and linear momentum flux released at merger. This has the effect of perturbing the gas in the disk, which then radiates the dissipated energy over a cooling timescale, giving a characteristic infrared signal for tens of thousands of years when the total black hole mass is M~10^8 M_sun. On the basis of a simple cosmological merger model in which a typical supermassive black hole undergoes a few major mergers during its lifetime, we predict that ~10^4-10^5 of these IR sources should be observable today and discuss the possibility of identifying them with multi-wavelength surveys such as SWIRE/XMM-LSS/XBootes and COSMOS.

v2: expanded discussion of optical depth calculations; ApJ in press

References in corpus (27)

• Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Three Year Results: Implications for Cosmology
• Large Merger Recoils and Spin Flips From Generic Black-Hole Binaries
• Maximum gravitational recoil
• Total recoil: the maximum kick from nonspinning black-hole binary inspiral
• Supermassive recoil velocities for binary black-hole mergers with antialigned spins
• Alignment of the spins of supermassive black holes prior to coalescence
• Supermassive black hole binaries in gaseous and stellar circumnuclear discs: orbital dynamics and gas accretion
• Ejection of Supermassive Black Holes from Galaxy Cores
• Getting a kick out of numerical relativity
• Gravitational recoil from spinning binary black hole mergers
• The imprint of massive black hole formation models on the LISA data stream
• High-spin binary black hole mergers
• Modeling kicks from the merger of generic black-hole binaries
• Observable Signatures of a Black Hole Ejected by Gravitational Radiation Recoil in a Galaxy Merger
• The Distribution of Recoil Velocities from Merging Black Holes
• Modeling kicks from the merger of non-precessing black-hole binaries
• Binary black hole mergers: large kicks for generic spin orientations
• Recoiling Black Holes in Quasars
• Gravitational recoil: signatures on the massive black hole population
• Prompt Shocks in the Gas Disk Around a Recoiling Supermassive Black Hole Binary
• Pre-Merger Localization of Gravitational-Wave Standard Sirens With LISA: Triggered Search for an Electromagnetic Counterpart
• Extra-Large Remnant Recoil Velocities and Spins from Near-Extremal-Bowen-York-Spin Black-Hole Binaries
• Powerful flares from recoiling black holes in quasars
• Modeling of Emission Signatures of Massive Black Hole Binaries: I Methods
• Brightening of an Accretion Disk Due to Viscous Dissipation of Gravitational Waves During the Coalescence of Supermassive Black Holes
• Retaining Black Holes with Very Large Recoil Velocities
• Gamma-ray emission from dark matter wakes of recoiled black holes

Cited by in corpus (75)

• Black holes, gravitational waves and fundamental physics: a roadmap
• Cosmology with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna
• The Population of Viscosity- and Gravitational Wave-Driven Supermassive Black Hole Binaries Among Luminous AGN
• Three Dimensional MHD Simulation of Circumbinary Accretion Disks: Disk Structures and Angular Momentum Transport
• Black-hole binaries, gravitational waves, and numerical relativity
• Gravitational Recoil From Accretion-Aligned Black-Hole Binaries
• Remnant Masses, Spins and Recoils from the Merger of Generic Black-Hole Binaries
• Dual black holes in merger remnants. II: spin evolution and gravitational recoil
• Recoiling Black Holes in Merging Galaxies: Relationship to AGN Lifetimes, Starbursts, and the M-sigma Relation
• SDSS J092712.65+294344.0: Recoiling Black Hole or A Sub-parsec Binary Candidate?
• Electromagnetic Counterparts to Massive Black Hole Mergers
• Binary Black Hole Mergers in Gaseous Environments: "Binary Bondi" and "Binary Bondi-Hoyle-Lyttleton" Accretion
• Recoiling black holes: electromagnetic signatures, candidates, and astrophysical implications
• Hypercompact Stellar Systems Around Recoiling Supermassive Black Holes
• Binary black hole mergers in gaseous disks: Simulations in general relativity
• Black hole mergers: the first light
• Dual black holes in merger remnants. I: linking accretion to dynamics
• Vacuum Electromagnetic Counterparts of Binary Black-Hole Mergers
• Relativistic Mergers of Supermassive Black Holes and their Electromagnetic Signatures
• Electromagnetic signals following stellar-mass black hole mergers
• Fossil Gas and the Electromagnetic Precursor of Supermassive Binary Black Hole Mergers
• Prompt Tidal Disruption of Stars as an Electromagnetic Signature of Supermassive Black Hole Coalescence
• Interruption of Tidal Disruption Flares By Supermassive Black Hole Binaries
• Reaction of Accretion Disks to Abrupt Mass Loss During Binary Black Hole Merger
• Perturbed disks get shocked. Binary black hole merger effects on accretion disks
• Identifying Decaying Supermassive Black Hole Binaries from their Variable Electromagnetic Emission
• Massive black hole binaries in LISA: multimessenger prospects and electromagnetic counterparts
• Time-Dependent Models for the Afterglows of Massive Black Hole Mergers
• Electromagnetic Signatures from Supermassive Binary Black Holes Approaching Merger
• Electromagnetic Counterparts to Black Hole Mergers
• Hydrodynamical Response of a Circumbinary Gas Disk to Black Hole Recoil and Mass Loss
• Comment on the Black Hole Recoil Candidate Quasar SDSS J092712.65+294344.0
• Gravitational Wave Recoil Oscillations of Black Holes: Implications for Unified Models of Active Galactic Nuclei
• Astro2010 Decadal Survey Whitepaper: Coordinated Science in the Gravitational and Electromagnetic Skies
• Dark energy, co-evolution of massive black holes with galaxies, and ASTROD-GW
• Modeling maximum astrophysical gravitational recoil velocities
• Star Clusters Around Recoiled Black Holes in the Milky Way Halo
• Origins Space Telescope Mission Concept Study Report
• Astrophysics of Super-massive Black Hole Mergers
• Interaction of Recoiling Supermassive Black Holes with Stars in Galactic Nuclei
• Gravitational-wave memory revisited: memory from the merger and recoil of binary black holes
• Black hole mergers: do gas discs lead to spin alignment?
• Filling the disk hollow following binary black hole merger: The transient accretion afterglow
• The Decoupling of Binaries from Their Circumbinary Disks
• Accretion Disks Around Binary Black Holes: A Quasistationary Model
• Supermassive Black Hole Binaries: The Search Continues
• Estimating the Prompt Electromagnetic Luminosity of a Black Hole Merger
• Prospects of testing late-time cosmology with weak lensing of gravitational waves and galaxy surveys
• Imprints of recoiling massive black-holes on the hot gas of early type galaxies
• Post-merger electromagnetic emissions from disks perturbed by binary black holes
• Witnessing the Birth of a Quasar
• Emission Lines as a Tool in Search for Supermassive Black Hole Binaries and Recoiling Black Holes
• Modeling Flows Around Merging Black Hole Binaries
• Post-Merger Jets from Supermassive Black Hole Coalescences as Electromagnetic Counterparts of Gravitational Wave Emission
• Advanced localization of massive black hole coalescences with LISA
• Chasing Super-Massive Black Hole merging events with $Athena$ and LISA
• The Final Merger of Black-Hole Binaries
• Near Real-Time Gravitational Wave Data Analysis of the Massive Black Hole Binary with TianQin
• Multimessenger study of merging massive black holes in the OBELISK simulation: gravitational waves, electromagnetic counterparts, and their link to galaxy and black hole populations
• Blindly detecting orbital modulations of jets from merging supermassive black holes
• Accretion disks around kicked black holes: Post-kick Dynamics
• Response of a circumbinary accretion disc to black hole mass loss
• A Second Decoupling Between Merging Binary Black Holes and the Inner Disc--Impact on the Electromagnetic Counterpart
• General Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations of Accretion Disks Around Tilted Binary Black Holes of Unequal Mass
• Accretion Disks Around Binary Black Holes: A Simple GR-Hybrid Evolution Model
• Lindblad resonance torques in relativistic discs: I. Basic equations
• GW170817: A Neutron Star Merger in a Mass-Transferring Triple System
• Gravitational Wave Heating of Stars and Accretion Disks
• Astrophysics with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna
• Observable Signatures of EMRI Black Hole Binaries Embedded in Thin Accretion Disks
• A Drop in the Pond: The Effect of Rapid Mass Loss on the Dynamics and Interaction Rate of Collisionless Particles
• Gravitational Radiation Driven Supermassive Black Hole Binary Inspirals as Periodically Variable Electromagnetic Sources
• Contaminating Electromagnetic Transients in LISA Gravitational Wave Localization Volumes. I: The Intrinsic Rates
• Preliminary census of galaxies in the LISA localisation volume: I. Searching for LISA candidate massive black hole binary merger hosts using Sloan Digital Sky Survey photometry
• On the dynamics of the torus around the kicked black hole