The final parsec problem: aligning a binary with an external accretion disc
arXiv:1107.5056 · doi:10.1111/j.1745-3933.2011.01121.x
Abstract
We consider the interaction between a binary system (e.g. two supermassive black holes or two stars) and an external accretion disc with misaligned angular momentum. This situation occurs in galaxy merger events involving supermassive black holes, and in the formation of stellar--mass binaries in star clusters. We work out the gravitational torque between the binary and disc, and show that their angular momenta J_b, J_d stably counteralign if their initial orientation is sufficiently retrograde, specifically if the angle theta between them obeys cos(theta) < -J_d/2J_b, on a time short compared with the mass gain time of the central accretor(s). The magnitude J_b remains unchanged in this process. Counteralignment can promote the rapid merger of supermassive black hole binaries, and possibly the formation of coplanar but retrograde planets around stars in binary systems.
Accepted in MNRAS Letters. 4 pages, 1 figure
Cited by in corpus (50)
- Accretion into the Central Cavity of a Circumbinary Disk
- Tearing up the disc: misaligned accretion on to a binary
- Wave-like warp propagation in circumbinary discs I. Analytic theory and numerical simulations
- Tearing up the disc: how black holes accrete
- The Kozai-Lidov Mechanism in Hydrodynamical Disks
- Signatures of broken protoplanetary discs in scattered light and in sub-millimetre observations
- Misaligned gas discs around eccentric black-hole binaries and implications for the final-parsec problem
- Polar alignment of a protoplanetary disk around an eccentric binary
- Gravitational wave probes of dark matter: challenges and opportunities
- Broken discs: warp propagation in accretion discs
- Stable counteralignment of a circumbinary disc
- Linear Analysis of the Evolution of Nearly Polar Low Mass Circumbinary Discs
- Why Are AGN and Host Galaxies Misaligned?
- The Kozai-Lidov Mechanism in Hydrodynamical Disks. II. Effects of binary and disk parameters
- Rapid AGN accretion from counter-rotating discs
- Gas dynamical friction as a binary formation mechanism in AGN discs
- Polar alignment of a protoplanetary disc around an eccentric binary II: Effect of binary and disc parameters
- GW Ori: Interactions Between a Triple-star System and its Circumtriple Disk in Action
- Binary accretion rates: dependence on temperature and mass-ratio
- Astrophysics of Super-massive Black Hole Mergers
- Polar alignment of a protoplanetary disc around an eccentric binary III: Effect of disc mass
- Alignment of a circumbinary disc around an eccentric binary with application to KH 15D
- Resonances in retrograde circumbinary discs
- Black hole mergers: do gas discs lead to spin alignment?
- Infalling clouds on to supermassive black hole binaries - II. Binary evolution and the final parsec problem
- Circumbinary disk inner radius as a diagnostic for disk--binary misalignment
- Ringed accretion disks: instabilities
- Formation of the polar debris disc around 99 Herculis
- Infalling clouds onto super-massive black hole binaries - I. Formation of discs, accretion and gas dynamics
- Linking the fate of massive black hole binaries to the active galactic nuclei luminosity function
- Self-lensing flares from black hole binaries II: observing black hole shadows via light-curve tomography
- GW Ori: circumtriple rings and planets
- Probing the presence of planets in transition discs' cavities via warps: the case of TW Hya
- Electromagnetic signatures of supermassive black hole binaries resolved by PTAs
- Extremely efficient mergers of intermediate mass black hole binaries in nucleated dwarf galaxies
- Eccentric Binaries in Retrograde Disks
- Binary Black Hole Accretion Flows From a Misaligned Circumbinary Disk
- Misaligned accretion on to supermassive black hole binaries
- Circumbinary discs around merging stellar-mass black holes
- Instability of non-Keplerian warped discs
- The evolution of a binary in a retrograde circular orbit embedded in an accretion disk
- Gravitational drag on a point mass in hypersonic motion within a Gaussian disk
- Cosmic evolution of black hole-spin and galaxy orientations: clues from the NewHorizon and Galactica simulations
- Dynamics and spin alignment in massive, gravito-turbulent circumbinary discs around supermassive black hole binaries
- Retrograde binaries of massive black holes in circum-binary accretion discs
- Polar alignment of a massive retrograde circumbinary disc around an eccentric binary
- SMBH accretion & mergers: removing the symmetries
- Warping and tearing of misaligned circumbinary disks around eccentric SMBH binaries
- Accretion mediated spin-eccentricity correlations in LISA massive black hole binaries
- Dynamical evolution timescales for the triple supermassive black hole system in NGC 6240