Birth of massive black hole binaries
M. Colpi, M. Dotti, L. Mayer, S. Kazantzidis

TL;DR
This paper reviews how gas-rich galaxy mergers facilitate the rapid formation and inspiral of massive black hole binaries, highlighting the role of gaseous discs and accretion processes in their evolution and observational signatures.
Contribution
It presents new insights into the dynamics of massive black hole binaries in gas-rich mergers, emphasizing the importance of gaseous discs and accretion in their rapid inspiral.
Findings
Black hole binaries form at the center of a self-gravitating nuclear disc.
Gas torques drive the binary to sub-parsec scales efficiently.
Double AGN activity occurs on timescales less than 1 million years.
Abstract
If massive black holes (BHs) are ubiquitous in galaxies and galaxies experience multiple mergers during their cosmic assembly, then BH binaries should be common albeit temporary features of most galactic bulges. Observationally, the paucity of active BH pairs points toward binary lifetimes far shorter than the Hubble time, indicating rapid inspiral of the BHs down to the domain where gravitational waves lead to their coalescence. Here, we review a series of studies on the dynamics of massive BHs in gas-rich galaxy mergers that underscore the vital role played by a cool, gaseous component in promoting the rapid formation of the BH binary. The BH binary is found to reside at the center of a massive self-gravitating nuclear disc resulting from the collision of the two gaseous discs present in the mother galaxies. Hardening by gravitational torques against gas in this grand disc is found to…
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