Intermediate-Mass Ratio Inspirals in Galactic Nuclei

Abstract

In this paper, we study the secular dynamical evolution of binaries composed of intermediate-mass and stellar-mass black holes (IMBHs and SBHs, respectively) in orbit about a central super-massive black hole (SMBH) in galactic nuclei. Such BH triplets could form via the inspiral of globular clusters toward galactic nuclei due to dynamical friction, or even major/minor galaxy mergers. We perform, for reasonable initial conditions that we justify, sophisticated $N$-body simulations that include both regularization and Post-Newtonian corrections. We find that mass segregation combined with Kozai-Lidov oscillations induced by the primary SMBH can effectively merge IMBH-SBH binaries on time-scales much shorter than gravitational wave emission alone. Moreover, the rate of such extreme mass ratio inspirals could be high ($\sim 1{\mathrm{Gpc}}^{-3}{\mathrm{yr}}^{-1}$) in the local Universe, but these are expected to be associated with recent GC infall or major/minor mergers, making the observational signatures of such events (e.g., tidal debris) good diagnostics for searching for SMBH-IMBH-SBH mergers. A small fraction could also be associated with tidal disruption events by the IMBH-SBH during inspiral.

arXiv comment8 pages, 5 figures, 1 Table, accepted by MNRAS

References in corpus (17)

• MOCCA Code for Star Cluster Simulations - IV. A new Scenario for Intermediate Mass Black Hole Formation in Globular Clusters
• The Luminosity, Stellar Mass, and Number Density Evolution of Field Galaxies of Known Morphology from z = 0.5 - 3
• N-body modeling of globular clusters: Masses, mass-to-light ratios and intermediate-mass black holes
• An intermediate-mass black hole in the centre of the globular cluster 47 Tucanae
• Intermediate mass black holes in AGN disks II. Model predictions & observational constraints
• Rapid Eccentricity Oscillations and the Mergers of Compact Objects in Hierarchical Triples
• Gravitational Waves and Intermediate-mass Black Hole Retention in Globular Clusters
• Detection of IMBHs with ground-based gravitational wave observatories: A biography of a binary of black holes, from birth to death
• An Overabundance of Black Hole X-Ray Binaries in the Galactic Center from Tidal Captures
• Gravitational wave sources from inspiralling globular clusters in the Galactic Centre and similar environments
• Quasi-secular evolution of mildly hierarchical triple systems: analytics and applications for GW-sources and hot Jupiters
• On the coexistence of stellar-mass and intermediate-mass black holes in globular clusters
• Generalized Hill-Stability Criteria for Hierarchical Three-Body Systems at Arbitrary Inclinations
• Gas depletion in primordial globular clusters due to accretion onto stellar-mass black holes
• The secular tidal disruption of stars by low-mass Super Massive Black Holes secondaries in galactic nuclei
• The chaotic four-body problem in Newtonian gravity I: Identical point-particles
• Infalling Young Clusters in the Galactic Centre: implications for IMBHs and young stellar populations

Cited by in corpus (15)

• Black hole and neutron star mergers in galactic nuclei
• Quasi-secular evolution of mildly hierarchical triple systems: analytics and applications for GW-sources and hot Jupiters
• Tidal Disruption Events and Gravitational Waves from Intermediate-mass Black Holes in Evolving Globular Clusters Across Space and Time
• Eccentric binary black hole mergers in globular clusters hosting intermediate-mass black holes
• Impact of a Spinning Supermassive Black Hole on the Orbit and Gravitational Waves of a Nearby Compact Binary
• The Effect of Distant Encounters on Black Hole Binaries in Globular Clusters: Systematic Increase of In-cluster Mergers in the LISA band
• Planetary Architectures in Interacting Stellar Environments
• Massive binary star mergers in galactic nuclei: implications for blue stragglers, binary S-stars and gravitational waves
• Gravitational-wave captures by intermediate-mass black holes in galactic nuclei
• Formation of supermassive black holes in galactic nuclei II: retention and growth of seed intermediate-mass black holes
• Constraining the cosmic merger history of intermediate-mass black holes with gravitational wave detectors
• Calibrating the binary black hole population in nuclear star clusters through tidal disruption events
• On the Tidal Capture of White Dwarfs by Intermediate-mass Black Holes in Dense Stellar Environments
• Tidal Disruption Events by Compact Supermassive Black Hole Binaries
• Merger rates of intermediate-mass black hole binaries in nuclear star clusters