An AGN disk channel for binary black hole mergers

by Dr Yaping Li (Los Alamos National Laboratory)

Wednesday 19 May 2021, 10:00 → 11:00 Asia/Shanghai

TDLI Meeting Room 200

Abstract

With more than fifty gravitational wave (GW) events detected during LIGO/Virgo’s first three observing runs, the formation channels of these stellar mass binary black hole (BBH) mergers remain poorly understood. Active galactic nucleus (AGN) disks have been proposed as one of the most promising locations for producing some of the detected stellar mass BBH mergers, especially for the recent detection of the heaviest BBH merger event GW190521 with a possible electromagnetic counterpart. In this work, we perform a series of high-resolution 2D hydrodynamical simulations of equal-mass binary black holes (BBHs) embedded in AGN disks to study whether these binaries can be driven to merger by the surrounding gas. We find that properly resolving the circum-single disk around each BH is essential for their orbital evolutions. I will also briefly discuss how 3D effect and the temperature enhancement in the vicinity of each BH can affect the results.

Biography

Yaping Li received his Bachelor from Huazhong University of Science and Technology and PhD from Xiamen University in 2016.  He then became a postdoc in Shanghai Astronomical Observatory between 2016-2018. He joined Los Alamos National Laboratory in 2018 as a postdoc fellow. His research interest includes black hole accretion, AGN multi-wavelength emissions, dust/gas dynamics in protoplanetary disks, planet formation, and gravitational sources for LIGO/Virgo.

Chair

Dr. Cui-Ying Song

Division

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Other information

Zoom link:  https://zoom.com.cn/j/65887677747    code (312190)