Symmetry Breaking in Dynamical Encounters in the Disks of Active Galactic Nuclei
The disks of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) may be important sites of binary black hole (BBH) mergers. Here we show via numerical experiments with the high-accuracy, high-precision code SpaceHub that broken symmetry in dynamical encounters in AGN disks can lead to asymmetry between prograde and retrograde BBH mergers. The direction of the hardening asymmetry depends on the initial binary semimajor axis. Under the assumption that the spin of the BHs becomes aligned with the angular momentum of the disk on a short timescale compared with the encounter timescale, an asymmetric distribution of mass-weighted projected spin χ
eff is predicted in LIGO–Virgo detections of BBH mergers from AGN disks. In particular, this model predicts that positive χ
eff BBH mergers are most likely for encounters with massive tertiaries in migration traps at radial distances ≳500–600 gravitational radii.
No keywords indexed for this article. Browse by subject →
Imre Bartos, Bence Kocsis, Zoltán Haiman et al.
Jillian M. Bellovary, Mordecai-Mark Mac Low, Barry McKernan et al.
B. McKernan, K. E. S. Ford, W. Lyra et al.
Amy Secunda, Jillian Bellovary, Mordecai-Mark Mac Low et al.
Nicholas C. Stone, Brian D. Metzger, Zoltán Haiman
Hiromichi Tagawa, Zoltán Haiman, Imre Bartos et al.
Christopher Tiede, Jonathan Zrake, Andrew MacFadyen et al.
Y. Yang, I. Bartos, V. Gayathri et al.
Harrison E. Cook, Barry McKernan · 2025
Maria Paola Vaccaro, Michela Mapelli · 2024
- Published
- Dec 01, 2021
- Vol/Issue
- 923(2)
- Pages
- L23
- License
- View
You May Also Like
B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott · 2017
3,531 citations
B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott · 2017
2,865 citations
Adam G. Riess, Wenlong Yuan · 2022
1,827 citations
R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott · 2020
1,577 citations
M. C. Miller, F. K. Lamb · 2019
1,550 citations