Martin, R.G. orcid.org/0000-0003-2401-7168, Lepp, S. orcid.org/0000-0003-2270-1310, Zhang, B. orcid.org/0000-0002-9725-2524 et al. (2 more authors) (2023) Mergers of black hole binaries driven by misaligned circumbinary discs. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters. slad174. ISSN 1745-3933
Abstract
With hydrodynamical simulations we examine the evolution of a highly misaligned circumbinary disc around a black hole binary including the effects of general relativity. We show that a disc mass of just a few percent of the binary mass can significantly increase the binary eccentricity through von-Zeipel–Kozai–Lidov (ZKL) like oscillations provided that the disc lifetime is longer than the ZKL oscillation timescale. The disc begins as a relatively narrow ring of material far from the binary and spreads radially. When the binary becomes highly eccentric, disc breaking forms an inner disc ring that quickly aligns to polar. The polar ring drives fast retrograde apsidal precession of the binary that weakens the ZKL effect. This allows the binary eccentricity to remain at a high level and may significantly shorten the black hole merger time. The mechanism requires the initial disc inclination relative to the binary to be closer to retrograde than to prograde.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Astronomical Society. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | accretion; accretion discs; binaries: general; hydrodynamics; black hole physics |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Physics and Astronomy (Leeds) > Astrophysics (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 24 Nov 2023 11:58 |
Last Modified: | 24 Nov 2023 11:58 |
Status: | Published online |
Publisher: | Oxford University Press |
Identification Number: | 10.1093/mnrasl/slad174 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:205760 |