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Resonantly enhanced kicks from equatorial small mass-ratio inspirals

Resonantly enhanced kicks from equatorial small mass-ratio inspirals
Resonantly enhanced kicks from equatorial small mass-ratio inspirals
We calculate the kick generated by an eccentric black hole binary inspiral as it evolves through a resonant orbital configuration where the precession of the system temporarily halts. As a result, the effects of the asymmetric emission of gravitational waves build up coherently over a large number of orbits. Our results are calculate using black hole perturbation theory in the limit where the ratio of the masses of the orbiting objects $\epsilon=m/M$ is small. The resulting kick velocity scales as $\epsilon^{3/2}$, much faster than the $\epsilon^2$ scaling of the kick generated by the final merger. For the most extreme case of a very eccentric ($e\sim 1$) inspiral around a maximally spinning black hole, we find kicks close to $30,000\;\epsilon^{3/2}$~km/s, enough to dislodge a black hole from its host cluster or even galaxy. In reality, such extreme inspirals should be very rare. Nonetheless, the astrophysical impact of kicks in less extreme inspirals could be astrophysically significant.
1550-7998
44027
van de Meent, Maarten
c06e1d53-18af-4ef1-8671-ff99b1a1df22
van de Meent, Maarten
c06e1d53-18af-4ef1-8671-ff99b1a1df22

van de Meent, Maarten (2014) Resonantly enhanced kicks from equatorial small mass-ratio inspirals. Physical Review D, 90 (4), 44027. (doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.90.044027).

Record type: Article

Abstract

We calculate the kick generated by an eccentric black hole binary inspiral as it evolves through a resonant orbital configuration where the precession of the system temporarily halts. As a result, the effects of the asymmetric emission of gravitational waves build up coherently over a large number of orbits. Our results are calculate using black hole perturbation theory in the limit where the ratio of the masses of the orbiting objects $\epsilon=m/M$ is small. The resulting kick velocity scales as $\epsilon^{3/2}$, much faster than the $\epsilon^2$ scaling of the kick generated by the final merger. For the most extreme case of a very eccentric ($e\sim 1$) inspiral around a maximally spinning black hole, we find kicks close to $30,000\;\epsilon^{3/2}$~km/s, enough to dislodge a black hole from its host cluster or even galaxy. In reality, such extreme inspirals should be very rare. Nonetheless, the astrophysical impact of kicks in less extreme inspirals could be astrophysically significant.

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Published date: 15 August 2014
Organisations: Applied Mathematics

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 379377
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/379377
ISSN: 1550-7998
PURE UUID: dd67f268-1dd8-4557-b6dd-99f0427cd4b0

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Date deposited: 28 Jul 2015 08:53
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 20:40

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Author: Maarten van de Meent

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