Binary Black-Hole Mergers in Magnetized Disks: Simulations in Full General Relativity

Abstract

We present results from the first fully general relativistic, magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) simulations of an equal-mass black hole binary (BHBH) in a magnetized, circumbinary accretion disk. We simulate both the pre and post-decoupling phases of a BHBH-disk system and both "cooling" and "no-cooling" gas flows. Prior to decoupling, the competition between the binary tidal torques and the effective viscous torques due to MHD turbulence depletes the disk interior to the binary orbit. However, it also induces a two-stream accretion flow and mildly relativistic polar outflows from the BHs. Following decoupling, but before gas fills the low-density "hollow" surrounding the remnant, the accretion rate is reduced, while there is a prompt electromagnetic (EM) luminosity enhancement following merger due to shock heating and accretion onto the spinning BH remnant. This investigation, though preliminary, previews more detailed GRMHD simulations we plan to perform in anticipation of future, simultaneous detections of gravitational and EM radiation from a merging BHBH-disk system.

5 pages, 5 figures

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• Binary Black Hole Accretion During Inspiral and Merger
• Numerical Relativity and Astrophysics
• Accretion disks around binary black holes of unequal mass: GRMHD simulations of postdecoupling and merger
• The numerical relativity breakthrough for binary black holes
• Resolving the relative influence of strong field spacetime dynamics and MHD on circumbinary disk physics
• Massive Black Hole Science with eLISA
• Accretion and outflow in the gamma ray bursts from black hole binary systems