Relativistic three-body effects in black hole coalescence

Manuela Campanelli, Miranda Dettwyler, Mark Hannam, and Carlos O. Lousto
Phys. Rev. D 74, 087503 – Published 18 October 2006

Abstract

Three-body interactions are expected to be common in globular clusters and in galactic cores hosting supermassive black holes. We consider an equal-mass binary black hole system in the presence of a third black hole. Using numerically generated binary black hole initial data sets, and first and second-order post-Newtonian (1PN and 2PN) techniques, we find that the presence of the third black hole has non-negligible relativistic effects on the location of the binary’s innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO), and that these effects arise at 2PN order. For a stellar-mass black hole binary in orbit about a supermassive black hole, the massive black hole has stabilizing effects on the orbiting binary, leading to an increase in merger time and a decrease of the terminal orbital frequency, and an amplification of the gravitational radiation emitted from the binary system by up to 6%.

  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Received 27 September 2005

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.74.087503

©2006 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Manuela Campanelli1, Miranda Dettwyler1, Mark Hannam1,2, and Carlos O. Lousto1

  • 1Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Center for Gravitational Wave Astronomy, The University of Texas at Brownsville, 80 Fort Brown, Brownsville, Texas 78520, USA
  • 2Theoretisch-Physikalisches Institut, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität, 07743 Jena, Germany

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Issue

Vol. 74, Iss. 8 — 15 October 2006

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