Unveiling the hosts of parsec-scale massive black hole binaries: morphology and electromagnetic signatures

Abstract

Parsec-scale massive black hole binaries (MBHBs) are expected to form in hierarchical models of structure formation. Even though different observational strategies have been designed to detect these systems, a theoretical study is a further guide for their search and identification. In this work, we investigate the hosts properties and the electromagnetic signatures of massive black holes gravitationally bound on parsec-scales with primary mass $>10^7{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$. For that, we construct a full-sky lightcone by the use of the semi-analytical model L-Galaxies in which physically motivated prescriptions for the formation and evolution of MBHBs have been included. Our predictions show that the large majority of the MBHBs are placed either in spiral galaxies with a classical bulge structure or in elliptical galaxies. Besides, the scaling relations followed by MBHBs are indistinguishable from the ones of single massive black holes. We find that the occupation fraction of parsec-scale MBHBs reaches up to $\sim 50\%$ in galaxies with ${\mathrm{M}}_{\mathrm{stellar}}>10^{11}{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$ and drops below 10\% for ${\mathrm{M}}_{\mathrm{stellar}}<10^{11}{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$. Our model anticipates that the majority of parsec-scale MBHBs are unequal mass systems and lie at $z\sim 0.5$, with $\sim 20$ objects per $\mathrm{de}{\mathrm{g}}^2$ in the sky. However, most of these systems are inactive, and only $1-0.1$ objects per $\mathrm{de}{\mathrm{g}}^2$ have an electromagnetic counterpart with a bolometric luminosity in excess of $10^{43}$ erg/s. Very luminous phases of parsec-scale MBHBs are more common at $z>1$ but the number of binaries per $\mathrm{de}{\mathrm{g}}^2$ is $\lesssim 0.01$ at ${\mathrm{L}}_{\mathrm{bol}}>10^{45}erg/s$.

19 pages, 16 Figures, Accepted by MNRAS

References in corpus (25)

• An Observational Determination of the Bolometric Quasar Luminosity Function
• Structural Properties of Pseudo-Bulges, Classical Bulges and Elliptical Galaxies: an SDSS Perspective
• The stochastic gravitational-wave background from massive black hole binary systems: implications for observations with Pulsar Timing Arrays
• A Compact Supermassive Binary Black Hole System
• A massive binary black-hole system in OJ287 and a test of general relativity
• Massive black hole binary mergers within sub-pc scale gas discs
• On the evidence for a common-spectrum process in the search for the nanohertz gravitational-wave background with the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array
• Common-red-signal analysis with 24-yr high-precision timing of the European Pulsar Timing Array: Inferences in the stochastic gravitational-wave background search
• Gravitational waves from resolvable massive black hole binary systems and observations with Pulsar Timing Arrays
• Supermassive black hole binaries in gaseous and stellar circumnuclear discs: orbital dynamics and gas accretion
• The Redshift Evolution of Wet, Dry, and Mixed Galaxy Mergers from Close Galaxy Pairs in the DEEP2 Galaxy Redshift Survey
• Expected properties of the first gravitational wave signal detected with pulsar timing arrays
• Interaction of massive black hole binaries with their stellar environment: I. Ejection of hypervelocity stars
• Growth and activity of black holes in galaxy mergers with varying mass ratios
• Massive binary black holes in galactic nuclei and their path to coalescence
• Quasars Are Not Light-Bulbs: Testing Models of Quasar Lifetimes with the Observed Eddington Ratio Distribution
• Modeling the cosmological co-evolution of supermassive black holes and galaxies: I. BH scaling relations and the AGN luminosity function
• Black hole mergers from dwarf to massive galaxies with the NewHorizon and Horizon-AGN simulations
• Massive black hole evolution models confronting the n-Hz amplitude of the stochastic gravitational wave background
• A Systematic Search for Periodically Varying Quasars in Pan-STARRS1: An Extended Baseline Test in Medium Deep Survey Field MD09
• Multi-messenger Time-domain Signatures Of Supermassive Black Hole Binaries
• The build-up of pseudobulges in a hierarchical universe
• Linking the fate of massive black hole binaries to the active galactic nuclei luminosity function
• Circumbinary disc self-gravity governing supermassive black hole binary mergers
• On the relation between the mass of Compact Massive Objects and their host galaxies

Cited by in corpus (9)

• UGC 4211: A Confirmed Dual Active Galactic Nucleus in the Local Universe at 230 pc Nuclear Separation
• Demographics of Tidal Disruption Events with L-Galaxies: I. Volumetric TDE rates and the abundance of Nuclear Star Clusters
• 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
• Hot, cold, and multi-component accretion flows around supermassive black hole binaries
• Signatures of Massive Black Hole Merger Host Galaxies from Cosmological Simulations II: Unique Stellar Kinematics in Integral Field Unit Spectroscopy
• Ultra-Low Frequency Gravitational Waves from Massive Clusters at z~1
• Overmassive and Undermassive Massive Black Holes: The Role of Environment and Gravitational-Wave Recoils
• A Population Study for Searching Supermassive Binary Black Holes in Active Galactic Nuclei: Continuum Spectral Features and Periodic Variabilities