Resolving massive black hole binaries evolution via adaptive particle-splitting

TL;DR

This paper uses adaptive particle-splitting in a 3D simulation to resolve the evolution of massive black hole binaries within gaseous discs, revealing how disc properties influence orbital decay.

Contribution

It introduces a hyper-Lagrangian resolution method with particle-splitting to accurately simulate black hole binary evolution within circumbinary discs.

Findings

Binary orbit decays in very cold and warm discs.

Disc viscosity influences mass distribution and accretion.

Balance of mass and accretion determines orbital decay.

Abstract

The study of the interaction of a massive black hole binary with its gaseous environment is crucial in order to be able to predict merger rates and possible electromagnetic counterparts of gravitational wave signals. The evolution of the binary semi-major axis resulting from this interaction has been recently debated, and a clear consensus is still missing, also because of several numerical limitations, i.e. fixed orbit binaries or lack of resolution inside the cavity carved by the binary in its circumbinary disc. Using on-the-fly particle-splitting in the 3D meshless code gizmo, we achieve hyper-Lagrangian resolution, which allows us to properly resolve the dynamics inside the cavity, and in particular for the first time the discs that form around the two components of a live binary surrounded by a locally isothermal gaseous circumbinary disc. We show that the binary orbit decays with time for very cold and very warm discs and that the result of the interaction in the intermediate regime is strongly in uenced by the disc viscosity as this essentially regulates the fraction of mass contained in the discs around the binary components as well as the fraction that is accreted by the binary. We find the balance between these two quantities to determine whether the binary semi-major axis decreases with time.