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dc.contributor.authorKocsis, Bence
dc.contributor.authorLoeb, Abraham
dc.contributor.authorYunes, Nicolas
dc.date.accessioned2011-12-01T19:57:25Z
dc.date.available2011-12-01T19:57:25Z
dc.date.issued2011-07
dc.date.submitted2011-04
dc.identifier.issn1550-7998
dc.identifier.issn1550-2368
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/67343
dc.description.abstractWe examine the electromagnetic and gravitational wave (GW) signatures of stellar-mass compact objects (COs) spiraling into a supermassive black hole (extreme mass-ratio inspirals), embedded in a thin, radiation-pressure dominated, accretion disk. At large separations, the tidal effect of the secondary CO clears a gap. We derive the conditions necessary for gap opening in a radiation-pressure dominated disk and show that the gap refills during the late GW-driven phase of the inspiral, leading to a sudden electromagnetic brightening of the source. The accretion disk leaves an imprint on the GW through its angular momentum exchange with the binary, the mass increase of the binary members due to accretion, and its gravity. We compute the disk-modified GWs both in an analytical Newtonian approximation and in a numerical effective-one-body approach. We find that disk-induced migration provides the dominant perturbation to the inspiral, with weaker effects from the mass accretion onto the CO and hydrodynamic drag. Depending on whether a gap is present, the perturbation of the GW phase is between 10 and 1000 rad per year, detectable with the future Laser Interferometer Space Antenna at high significance. The perturbation is significant for disk models with an effective viscosity proportional to gas pressure but much less so if proportional to the total pressure. The Fourier transform of the disk-modified GW in the stationary phase approximation is sensitive to disk parameters with a frequency trend different from post-Newtonian vacuum corrections. Our results suggest that observations of extreme mass-ratio inspirals may place new sensitive constraints on the physics of accretion disks.en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipUnited States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Einstein Postdoctoral Fellowship Award No. PF9-00063)en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipUnited States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Einstein Postdoctoral Fellowship Award No. PF0-110080)en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipUnited States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (contract NAS8-03060)en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipHungarian Scientific Research Foundation (OTKA) (Grant No. 68228)en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipNational Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant No. AST-0907890)en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipUnited States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Grant No. NNX08AL43G)en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipUnited States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Grant No. NNA09DB30A)en_US
dc.language.isoen_US
dc.publisherAmerican Physical Societyen_US
dc.relation.isversionofhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.84.024032en_US
dc.rightsArticle is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.en_US
dc.sourceAPSen_US
dc.titleObservable signatures of extreme mass-ratio inspiral black hole binaries embedded in thin accretion disksen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US
dc.identifier.citationKocsis, Bence, Nicolás Yunes, and Abraham Loeb. “Observable signatures of extreme mass-ratio inspiral black hole binaries embedded in thin accretion disks.” Physical Review D 84 (2011): n. pag. Web. 1 Dec. 2011. © 2011 American Physical Societyen_US
dc.contributor.departmentMassachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physicsen_US
dc.contributor.departmentMIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Researchen_US
dc.contributor.approverYunes, Nicolas
dc.contributor.mitauthorYunes, Nicolas
dc.relation.journalPhysical Review Den_US
dc.eprint.versionFinal published versionen_US
dc.type.urihttp://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticleen_US
eprint.statushttp://purl.org/eprint/status/PeerRevieweden_US
dspace.orderedauthorsKocsis, Bence; Yunes, Nicolás; Loeb, Abrahamen
mit.licensePUBLISHER_POLICYen_US
mit.metadata.statusComplete


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