Relativistic Dynamics and Mass Exchange in Binary Black Hole Mini-Disks

Abstract

We present the first exploration of relativistic gas dynamics in the immediate vicinity of binary black holes as the system inspirals close to merger in the gravitational radiation-driven regime. We focus on 2D hydrodynamical studies of comparable-mass, non-spinning systems. Relativistic effects alter the dynamics of gas in this environment in several ways. Because the gravitational potential between the two black holes becomes shallower than in the Newtonian regime, the mini-disks stretch toward the L1 point and the amount of gas passing back and forth between the mini-disks increases sharply with decreasing binary separation. This "sloshing" is quasi-periodically modulated at $2$ and $2.75$ times the binary orbital frequency, corresponding to timescales of hours to days for supermassive binary black holes. In addition, relativistic effects add an $m=1$ component to the tidally-driven spiral waves in the disks that are purely $m=2$ in Newtonian gravity; this component becomes dominant when the separation is $\lesssim 100$ gravitational radii. Both the sloshing and the spiral waves have the potential to create distinctive radiation features that may uniquely mark supermassive binary black holes in the relativistic regime.

21 pages, 19 figures

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• Quasi-Periodicity of Supermassive Binary Black Hole Accretion Approaching Merger
• Electromagnetic Signatures from Supermassive Binary Black Holes Approaching Merger
• Pulsed Accretion in the T Tauri Binary TWA 3A
• Kinematic signatures of reverberation mapping of close binaries of supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei III. The case of elliptical orbits
• Variation of Broad Emission Lines from QSOs with Optical/UV Periodicity to Test the Interpretation of Supermassive Binary Black Holes
• Magnetically Arrested Circumbinary Accretion Flows
• Evolution of circumbinary accretion disk around supermassive binary black hole: post-Newtonian hydrodynamics versus Newtonian hydrodynamics
• On the evolution of compact binary black holes
• Misaligned Spinning Binary Black Hole Mergers in Hot Magnetized Plasma
• PatchworkWave: A Multipatch Infrastructure for Multiphysics/Multiscale/Multiframe/Multimethod Simulations at Arbitrary Order