Gravitational Recoil Velocities from Eccentric Binary Black Hole Mergers

The formation and growth of supermassive black holes is a key issue to unveil the secrets of galaxy formation. In particular, the gravitational recoil produced in the merger of unequal mass black hole binaries could have a number of astrophysical implications, such as the ejection of black holes from the host galaxy or globular cluster. We present estimates of the recoil velocity that include the effect of small eccentricities. The approach is especially suited for the last stage of the merger, where most of the emission of linear momentum in gravitational waves takes place. Supplementing our estimates with post-Newtonian approximations, we obtain lower and upper bounds that constrain previous recoil velocities estimates, as well as a best estimate that agrees with numerical simulations in the quasi-circular case. For eccentricities e ≤ 0.1, the maximum recoil is found for a mass ratio of M1/M2 ~ 0.38 with velocities in the range 79-216 km s-1 (1 + e) and a best estimate of 167 km s-1 (1 + e).

[1]  P. Laguna,et al.  Gravitational recoil from binary black hole mergers: The close-limit approximation , 2006, astro-ph/0608600.

[2]  M. Colpi,et al.  Laser Interferometer Space Antenna double black holes : dynamics in gaseous nuclear discs , 2006 .

[3]  Dae-Il Choi,et al.  Getting a Kick Out of Numerical Relativity , 2006, astro-ph/0603204.

[4]  T. Damour,et al.  Gravitational recoil during binary black hole coalescence using the effective one body approach , 2006, gr-qc/0602117.

[5]  M. Rees,et al.  Possible evidence for the ejection of a supermassive black hole from an ongoing merger of galaxies , 2005, astro-ph/0511245.

[6]  T. Abel,et al.  The role of primordial kicks on black hole merger rates , 2005, astro-ph/0609443.

[7]  M. Colpi,et al.  LISA double black holes: Dynamics in gaseous nuclear discs , 2005, astro-ph/0509813.

[8]  P. Armitage,et al.  Eccentricity of Supermassive Black Hole Binaries Coalescing from Gas-rich Mergers , 2005, astro-ph/0508493.

[9]  C. Will,et al.  Gravitational Recoil of Inspiraling Black Hole Binaries to Second Post-Newtonian Order , 2005, astro-ph/0507692.

[10]  Z. Haiman.  Constraints from Gravitational Recoil on the Growth of Supermassive Black Holes at High Redshift , 2004, astro-ph/0404196.

[11]  P. Madau,et al.  The Effect of Gravitational-Wave Recoil on the Demography of Massive Black Holes , 2004, astro-ph/0403295.

[12]  D. Holz,et al.  Consequences of Gravitational Radiation Recoil , 2004, astro-ph/0402057.

[13]  D. Holz,et al.  How Black Holes Get Their Kicks: Gravitational Radiation Recoil Revisited , 2004, astro-ph/0402056.

[14]  Karsten Danzmann,et al.  LISA - An ESA Cornerstone Mission for the Detection and Observation of Gravitational Waves , 2003 .

[15]  Black hole binary dynamics , 2002, astro-ph/0210116.

[16]  Piero Madau,et al.  The Assembly and Merging History of Supermassive Black Holes in Hierarchical Models of Galaxy Formation , 2002, astro-ph/0207276.

[17]  L. Ferrarese.  Beyond the Bulge: A Fundamental Relation between Supermassive Black Holes and Dark Matter Halos , 2002, astro-ph/0203469.

[18]  D. Merritt,et al.  A Fundamental Relation between Supermassive Black Holes and Their Host Galaxies , 2000, astro-ph/0006053.

[19]  S. Tremaine,et al.  The Demography of Massive Dark Objects in Galaxy Centers , 1997, astro-ph/9708072.

[20]  R. Price,et al.  Head-on collisions of unequal mass black holes: Close-limit predictions , 1996, gr-qc/9611022.

[21]  Price,et al.  Colliding Black Holes: How Far Can the Close Approximation Go? , 1996, Physical review letters.

[22]  Price,et al.  Head-on collision of two black holes: Comparison of different approaches. , 1995, Physical review. D, Particles and fields.

[23]  Price,et al.  Colliding black holes: The close limit. , 1994, Physical review letters.

[24]  Wiseman,et al.  Coalescing binary systems of compact objects to (post)5/2-Newtonian order. II. Higher-order wave forms and radiation recoil. , 1992, Physical review. D, Particles and fields.

[25]  M. Fitchett,et al.  Linear momentum and gravitational waves: circular orbits around a Schwarzschild black hole , 1984 .

[26]  M. Fitchett.  The influence of gravitational wave momentum losses on the centre of mass motion of a Newtonian binary system , 1983 .

[27]  M. Rees,et al.  Massive black hole binaries in active galactic nuclei , 1980, Nature.

[28]  J. York,et al.  Time-asymmetric initial data for black holes and black-hole collisions , 1980 .

[29]  William H. Press,et al.  Formation of Galaxies and Clusters of Galaxies by Self-Similar Gravitational Condensation , 1974 .

[30]  J. Bekenstein.  Gravitational-Radiation Recoil and Runaway Black Holes , 1973 .

[31]  R. W. Lindquist,et al.  INTERACTION ENERGY IN GEOMETROSTATICS , 1963 .

[32]  A. Peres.  Classical Radiation Recoil , 1962 .