Resonant relaxation in globular clusters

Resonant relaxation has been discussed as an efficient process that changes the angular momenta of stars orbiting around a central supermassive black hole due to the fluctuating gravitational field of the stellar cluster. Other spherical stellar systems, such as globular clusters, exhibit a restricted form of this effect where enhanced relaxation rate only occurs in the directions of the angular momentum vectors, but not in their magnitudes; this is called vector resonant relaxation (VRR). To explore this effect, we performed a large set of direct N-body simulations, with up to 512k particles and ~500 dynamical times. Contrasting our simulations with Spitzer-style Monte Carlo simulations, that by design only exhibit 2-body relaxation, we show that the temporal behavior of the angular momentum vectors in $N$-body simulations cannot be explained by 2-body relaxation alone. VRR operates efficiently in globular clusters with $N>10^4$. The fact that VRR operates in globular clusters may open way to use powerful tools in statistical physics for their description. In particular, since the distribution of orbital planes relaxes much more rapidly than the distribution of the magnitude of angular momentum and the radial action, the relaxation process reaches an internal statistical equilibrium in the corresponding part of phase space while the whole cluster is generally out of equilibrium, in a state of quenched disorder. We point out the need to include effects of VRR in Monte Carlo simulations of globular clusters.Comment: Submitted to Ap

Parameter estimation for inspiraling eccentric compact binaries including pericenter precession

Inspiraling supermassive black hole binary systems with high orbital eccentricity are important sources for space-based gravitational wave (GW) observatories like the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). Eccentricity adds orbital harmonics to the Fourier transform of the GW signal and relativistic pericenter precession leads to a three-way splitting of each harmonic peak. We study the parameter estimation accuracy for such waveforms with different initial eccentricity using the Fisher matrix method and a Monte Carlo sampling of the initial binary orientation. The eccentricity improves the parameter estimation by breaking degeneracies between different parameters. In particular, we find that the source localization precision improves significantly for higher-mass binaries due to eccentricity. The typical sky position errors are $\sim1$deg for a nonspinning, $10^7\,M_{\odot}$ equal-mass binary at redshift $z=1$, if the initial eccentricity 1 yr before merger is $e_0\sim 0.6$. Pericenter precession does not affect the source localization accuracy significantly, but it does further improve the mass and eccentricity estimation accuracy systematically by a factor of 3--10 for masses between $10^6$ and $10^7\,M_{\odot}$ for $e_0 \sim 0.3$.Comment: 14 two-column pages, 12 figures, expanded version; contains the proof correction

Imprint of Accretion Disk-Induced Migration on Gravitational Waves from Extreme Mass Ratio Inspirals

We study the effects of a thin gaseous accretion disk on the inspiral of a stellar--mass black hole into a supermassive black hole. We construct a phenomenological angular momentum transport equation that reproduces known disk effects. Disk torques modify the gravitational wave phase evolution to detectable levels with LISA for reasonable disk parameters. The Fourier transform of disk-modified waveforms acquires a correction with a different frequency trend than post-Newtonian vacuum terms. Such inspirals could be used to detect accretion disks with LISA and to probe their physical parameters.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, submitted to Physical Review Letter

Implications of the Eccentric Kozai-Lidov Mechanism for Stars Surrounding Supermassive Black Hole Binaries

An enhanced rate of stellar tidal disruption events (TDEs) may be an important characteristic of supermassive black hole (SMBH) binaries at close separations. Here we study the evolution of the distribution of stars around a SMBH binary due to the eccentric Kozai-Lidov (EKL) mechanism, including octupole effects and apsidal precession caused by the stellar mass distribution and general relativity. We identify a region around one of the SMBHs in the binary where the EKL mechanism drives stars to high eccentricities, which ultimately causes the stars to either scatter off the second SMBH or get disrupted. For SMBH masses 10^7 Msun and 10^8 Msun, the TDE rate can reach 10^{-2} yr and deplete a region of the stellar cusp around the secondary SMBH in ~0.5 Myr. As a result, the final geometry of the stellar distribution between 0.01 and 0.1 pc around the secondary SMBH is a torus. These effects may be even more prominent in nuclear stellar clusters hosting a supermassive and an intermediate mass black hole.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures accepted for publication in MNRA

Rapid and Bright Stellar-mass Binary Black Hole Mergers in Active Galactic Nuclei

The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, LIGO, found direct evidence for double black hole binaries emitting gravitational waves. Galactic nuclei are expected to harbor the densest population of stellar-mass black holes. A significant fraction ($\sim30\%$) of these black holes can reside in binaries. We examine the fate of the black hole binaries in active galactic nuclei, which get trapped in the inner region of the accretion disk around the central supermassive black hole. We show that binary black holes can migrate into and then rapidly merge within the disk well within a Salpeter time. The binaries may also accrete a significant amount of gas from the disk, well above the Eddington rate. This could lead to detectable X-ray or gamma-ray emission, but would require hyper-Eddington accretion with a few percent radiative efficiency, comparable to thin disks. We discuss implications for gravitational wave observations and black hole population studies. We estimate that Advanced LIGO may detect $\sim20$ such, gas-induced binary mergers per year.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figure