Post-Newtonian Dynamics in Dense Star Clusters: Highly Eccentric, Highly Spinning, and Repeated Binary Black Hole Mergers
Name
PhysRevLett.120.151101.pdf
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1.12 MB
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Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
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Author(s)
Amaro-Seoane, Pau
Chatterjee, Sourav
Rasio, Frederic A.
Rodriguez, Carl
Date Issued
April 2018
Journal
Physical Review Letters
Publisher
American Physical Society
Citation
Rodriguez, Carl L. et al. "Post-Newtonian Dynamics in Dense Star Clusters: Highly Eccentric, Highly Spinning, and Repeated Binary Black Hole Mergers." Physical Review Letters 120, 15 (April 2018): 151101 © 2018 American Physical Society
Version
Final published version
Abstract
We present models of realistic globular clusters with post-Newtonian dynamics for black holes. By modeling the relativistic accelerations and gravitational-wave emission in isolated binaries and during three- and four-body encounters, we find that nearly half of all binary black hole mergers occur inside the cluster, with about 10% of those mergers entering the LIGO/Virgo band with eccentricities greater than 0.1. In-cluster mergers lead to the birth of a second generation of black holes with larger masses and high spins, which, depending on the black hole natal spins, can sometimes be retained in the cluster and merge again. As a result, globular clusters can produce merging binaries with detectable spins regardless of the birth spins of black holes formed from massive stars. These second-generation black holes would also populate any upper mass gap created by pair-instability supernovae.
MIT Department
MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.151101
