Fossil Gas and the Electromagnetic Precursor of Supermassive Binary Black Hole Mergers

TL;DR

This paper models the evolution of supermassive binary black holes with a gas disk, predicting a distinctive electromagnetic brightening shortly before merger, which could help identify host galaxies in conjunction with gravitational wave signals.

Contribution

It introduces a one-dimensional model of gas disk evolution around binary black holes, revealing a late-time electromagnetic brightening as a potential merger signature.

Findings

Inner disk reaches a small asymptotic mass (~10^{-3}-10^{-4} solar masses)

Late-time brightening peaks about 1 day before merger at ~0.1 L_Edd

Electromagnetic signature is robust due to self-regulation in disk evolution

Abstract

Using a one-dimensional height integrated model, we calculate the evolution of an unequal mass binary black hole with a coplanar gas disk that contains a gap due to the presence of the secondary black hole. Viscous evolution of the outer circumbinary disk initially hardens the binary, while the inner disk drains onto the primary (central) black hole. As long as the inner disk remains cool and thin at low $\dot{M}_{\rm ext}$ (rather than becoming hot and geometrically thick), the mass of the inner disk reaches an asymptotic mass typically $\sim 10^{-3}-10^{-4}\Msun$. Once the semimajor axis shrinks below a critical value, angular momentum losses from gravitational waves dominate over viscous transport in hardening the binary. The inner disk then no longer responds viscously to the inspiraling black holes. Instead, tidal interactions with the secondary rapidly drive the inner disk into the primary. Tidal and viscous dissipation in the inner disk lead to a late time brightening in luminosity $L\propto t_{\rm minus}^{5/4}$, where $t_{\rm minus}$ is the time prior to the final merger. This late time brightening peaks $\sim 1$ day prior to the final merger at $\sim 0.1 L_{\rm Edd}$. This behavior is relatively robust because of self regulation in the coupled viscous-gravitational evolution of such binary systems. It constitutes a unique electromagnetic signature of a binary supermassive black hole merger and may allow the host galaxy to be identified if used in conjunction with the Laser Interferometric Space Antenna (LISA) localization.