Scattering experiments meet N-body I: a practical recipe for the evolution of massive black hole binaries in stellar environments

Abstract

The N-independence observed in the evolution of massive black hole binaries (MBHBs) in recent simulation of merging stellar bulges suggests a simple interpretation beyond complex time-dependent relaxation processes. We conjecture that the MBHB hardening rate is equivalent to that of a binary immersed in a field of unbound stars with density $\rho$ and typical velocity $\sigma$, provided that $\rho$ and $\sigma$ are the stellar density and the velocity dispersion at the influence radius of the MBHB. By comparing direct N-body simulations to an hybrid model based on 3-body scattering experiments, we verify this hypothesis: when normalized to the stellar density and velocity dispersion at the binary influence radius, the N-body MBHB hardening rate approximately matches that predicted by 3-body scatterings in the investigated cases. The eccentricity evolution obtained with the two techniques is also in reasonable agreement. This result is particularly practical because it allows to estimate the lifetime of MBHBs forming in dry mergers based solely on the stellar density profile of the host galaxy. We briefly discuss some implications of our finding for the gravitational wave signal observable by pulsar timing arrays and for the expected population of MBHBs lurking in massive ellipticals.

6 pages, 3 figures, 1 table. Submitted to MNRAS Letters

References in corpus (11)

• The stochastic gravitational-wave background from massive black hole binary systems: implications for observations with Pulsar Timing Arrays
• Interaction of massive black hole binaries with their stellar environment: I. Ejection of hypervelocity stars
• Dynamics of triple black hole systems in hierarchically merging massive galaxies
• Performance Analysis of Direct N-Body Algorithms on Special-Purpose Supercomputers
• From star clusters to dwarf galaxies: The properties of dynamically hot stellar systems
• Self consistent model for the evolution of eccentric massive black hole binaries in stellar environments: implications for gravitational wave observations
• Interaction of massive black hole binaries with their stellar environment: III. Scattering of bound stars
• Galaxy Rotation and Rapid Supermassive Black Hole Binary Coalescence
• Massive perturbers and the efficient merger of binary massive black holes
• Linking the fate of massive black hole binaries to the active galactic nuclei luminosity function
• Evolution of a Binary Black Hole with a Retrograde Circumbinary Accretion Disk

Cited by in corpus (108)

• Black holes, gravitational waves and fundamental physics: a roadmap
• Science with the space-based interferometer LISA. V: Extreme mass-ratio inspirals
• The NANOGrav 15-year Data Set: Constraints on Supermassive Black Hole Binaries from the Gravitational Wave Background
• Massive Black Hole Binary Mergers in Dynamical Galactic Environments
• The Local Nanohertz Gravitational-Wave Landscape From Supermassive Black Hole Binaries
• The Gravitational Wave Background from Massive Black Hole Binaries in Illustris: spectral features and time to detection with pulsar timing arrays
• Post-Newtonian Evolution of Massive Black Hole Triplets in Galactic Nuclei: IV. Implications for LISA
• Science with the TianQin observatory: Preliminary results on massive black hole binaries
• Black hole mergers from dwarf to massive galaxies with the NewHorizon and Horizon-AGN simulations
• Massive black hole merger rates: the effect of kpc separation wandering and supernova feedback
• Dancing to ChaNGa: A Self-Consistent Prediction For Close SMBH Pair Formation Timescales Following Galaxy Mergers
• Constraining astrophysical observables of Galaxy and Supermassive Black Hole Binary Mergers using Pulsar Timing Arrays
• Swift coalescence of supermassive black holes in cosmological mergers of massive galaxies
• Post-Newtonian evolution of massive black hole triplets in galactic nuclei -- III. A robust lower limit to the nHz stochastic background of gravitational waves
• Post-Newtonian evolution of massive black hole triplets in galactic nuclei -- II. Survey of the parameter space
• Testing the binary hypothesis: pulsar timing constraints on supermassive black hole binary candidates
• Massive BH Binaries as Periodically-Variable AGN
• Massive black hole evolution models confronting the n-Hz amplitude of the stochastic gravitational wave background
• Post-Newtonian Evolution of Massive Black Hole Triplets in Galactic Nuclei: I. Numerical Implementation and Tests
• Gravitational waves from Population III binary black holes formed by dynamical capture
• The Population III origin of GW190521
• Efficient computation of the gravitational wave spectrum emitted by eccentric massive black hole binaries in stellar environments
• Supermassive black hole pairs in clumpy galaxies at high redshift: delayed binary formation and concurrent mass growth
• Discovery of a close-separation binary quasar at the heart of a z~0.2 merging galaxy and its implications for low-frequency gravitational waves
• Mini-disk accretion onto spinning black hole binaries: quasi-periodicities and outflows
• Electromagnetic Signatures from Supermassive Binary Black Holes Approaching Merger
• Searching for Binary Supermassive Black Holes via Variable Broad Emission Line Shifts: Low Binary Fraction
• Eccentricity evolution of massive black hole binaries from formation to coalescence
• Formation of LISA Black Hole Binaries in Merging Dwarf Galaxies: the Imprint of Dark Matter
• Effect of data gaps on the detectability and parameter estimation of massive black hole binaries with LISA
• Constraints on Black Hole/Host Galaxy Co-evolution and Binary Stalling Using Pulsar Timing Arrays
• Global torques and stochasticity as the drivers of massive black hole pairing in the young Universe
• $N-$body dynamics of Intermediate mass-ratio inspirals in globular clusters
• The nightmare scenario: measuring the stochastic gravitational-wave background from stalling massive black-hole binaries with pulsar-timing arrays
• Infalling clouds on to supermassive black hole binaries - II. Binary evolution and the final parsec problem
• Dynamical Evolution and Merger Time-scales of LISA Massive Black Hole Binaries in Disk Galaxy Mergers
• Boosted Tidal Disruption by Massive Black Hole Binaries During Galaxy Mergers FROM The View of N-Body Simulation
• Galaxy Rotation and Supermassive Black Hole Binary Evolution
• Nonlinear quasinormal mode detectability with next-generation gravitational wave detectors
• Circumbinary Disk Accretion into Spinning Black Hole Binaries
• The competing effect of gas and stars in massive black hole binaries evolution
• Unveiling sub-parsec supermassive black hole binary candidates in active galactic nuclei
• The influence of Massive Black Hole Binaries on the Morphology of Merger Remnants
• The Astro-Primordial Black Hole Merger Rates: a Reappraisal
• Massive Black Hole Mergers with Orbital Information: Predictions from the ASTRID Simulation
• Galaxy fields of LISA massive black hole mergers in a simulated Universe
• Accelerated orbital decay of supermassive black hole binaries in merging nuclear star clusters
• The lifetime of binary black holes in Sérsic galaxy models
• No tension between assembly models of supermassive black hole binaries and pulsar observations
• Improved gravitational radiation time-scales II: spin-orbit contributions and environmental perturbations
• Inward Bound: The incredible journey of massive black holes as they pair and merge; I. The effect of mass ratio in flattened rotating galactic nuclei
• Gravitational Waves from the Inspiral of Supermassive Black Holes in Galactic-scale Simulations
• Implications of the pulsar timing array detections for massive black hole mergers in the LISA band
• Binary intermediate-mass black hole mergers in globular clusters
• Gravitational Wave Driven Mergers and Coalescence Time of Supermassive Black Holes
• Tidal disruption events from massive black hole binaries: predictions for ongoing and future surveys
• Extremely efficient mergers of intermediate mass black hole binaries in nucleated dwarf galaxies
• Gravitational waves from the remnants of the first stars in nuclear star clusters
• Multimessenger study of merging massive black holes in the OBELISK simulation: gravitational waves, electromagnetic counterparts, and their link to galaxy and black hole populations
• Properties and merger signatures of galaxies hosting LISA coalescing massive black hole binaries
• Periodic Gamma-ray Modulation of the blazar PG 1553+113 Confirmed by Fermi-LAT and Multi-wavelength Observations
• Lecture notes on black hole binary astrophysics
• Gravitational waves from mergers of Population III binary black holes: roles played by two evolution channels
• The (Black Hole Mass)-(Spheroid Stellar Density) Relations: $M_{\mathrm{BH}}$--$\mu$ (and $M_{\mathrm{BH}}$--$\Sigma$) and $M_{\mathrm{BH}}$--$\rho$
• Unveiling the hosts of parsec-scale massive black hole binaries: morphology and electromagnetic signatures
• Supermassive Binary Black Hole Evolution can be traced by a small SKA Pulsar Timing Array
• Multiple regimes and coalescence timescales for massive black hole pairs ; the critical role of galaxy formation physics
• An estimate of the stochastic gravitational wave background from the MassiveBlackII simulation
• Evolution of supermassive black hole binaries and tidal disruption rates in nonspherical galactic nuclei
• Black hole mergers as tracers of spinning massive black hole and galaxy populations in the OBELISK simulation
• Evaluating the Merger Rate of Binary Black Holes from Direct Captures and Third-Body Soft Interactions Using the Milky Way Globular Clusters
• Demographics of Tidal Disruption Events with L-Galaxies: I. Volumetric TDE rates and the abundance of Nuclear Star Clusters
• Dynamics of supermassive black hole triples in the ROMULUS25 cosmological simulation
• Resolving the nano-Hz gravitational wave sky: the detectability of eccentric binaries with PTA experiments
• Signatures of Massive Black Hole Merger Host Galaxies from Cosmological Simulations I: Unique Galaxy Morphologies in Imaging
• LISA Constraints on an Intermediate-Mass Black Hole in the Galactic Centre
• An Enhanced Massive Black Hole Occupation Fraction Predicted in Cluster Dwarf Galaxies
• Off-centre supermassive black holes in bright central galaxies
• Black Holes merging with Low Mass Gap Objects inside Globular Clusters
• Neural Networks unveiling the properties of gravitational wave background from massive black hole binaries
• Triple and Quadruple Black Holes in the ASTRID Simulation at $z\sim 2$
• Astrophysics with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna
• Accretion of clumpy cold gas onto massive black holes binaries: the challenging formation of extended circumbinary structures
• Reading signatures of supermassive binary black holes in pulsar timing array observations
• Probing $z\gtrsim 6$ massive black holes with gravitational waves
• Properties of loss cone stars in a cosmological galaxy merger remnant
• Signatures of Massive Black Hole Merger Host Galaxies from Cosmological Simulations II: Unique Stellar Kinematics in Integral Field Unit Spectroscopy
• Exploring the multiband gravitational wave background with a semi-analytic galaxy formation model
• Ultra-low-frequency gravitational waves from individual supermassive black hole binaries as standard sirens
• Inferring Mbh-Mbulge Evolution from the Gravitational Wave Background
• Massive Black Hole Mergers
• Ultra-Low Frequency Gravitational Waves from Massive Clusters at z~1
• Gravitational wave inference of star cluster properties from intermediate-mass black hole mergers
• Galactic merger implications for eccentric nuclear disks: a mechanism for disk alignment
• Probing supermassive black hole scalarization with Pulsar Timing Arrays
• Identifying massive black hole binaries via light curve variability in optical time-domain surveys
• The landscape of massive black-hole spectroscopy with LISA and Einstein Telescope
• Black hole merger rates for LISA and LGWA from semi-analytical modelling of light seeds
• Intermediate Mass Black Hole Binary Evolution in Nuclear Star Clusters: the effect of the stellar mass black hole population
• X-Ray Spectral Variability of the TeV HBL Blazar PG 1553+113 with XMM-Newton
• Overmassive and Undermassive Massive Black Holes: The Role of Environment and Gravitational-Wave Recoils
• Multi-wavelength properties of $z\gtrsim 6$ LISA detectable events
• Contaminating Electromagnetic Transients in LISA Gravitational Wave Localization Volumes. I: The Intrinsic Rates
• Discriminating between different scenarios for the formation and evolution of massive black holes with LISA
• Extreme Mass Ratio Inspirals triggered by Massive Black Hole Binaries: from Relativistic Dynamics to Cosmological Rates
• Off-center black hole seed formation? Implications for high and low redshift massive black holes
• Black Hole merger rates in the first billion years in light of JWST data
• Assessing the performance of future space-based detectors: Astrophysical foregrounds and individual sources