Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS April Meeting 2017
Volume 62, Number 1
Saturday–Tuesday, January 28–31, 2017; Washington, DC
Session S14: Progenitors of Merging Binary Black HolesInvited
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Sponsoring Units: DAP DGRAV Chair: Peter Shawhan, University of Maryland Room: Washington 1 |
Monday, January 30, 2017 1:30PM - 2:06PM |
S14.00001: Beller Lectureship: Classical binary star evolution leading to a binary black hole Invited Speaker: Selma de Mink TBA [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, January 30, 2017 2:06PM - 2:42PM |
S14.00002: Dynamical Formation and Merger of Binary Black Holes Invited Speaker: Nicholas Stone The advent of gravitational wave (GW) astronomy began with Advanced LIGO’s 2015 discovery of GWs from coalescing black hole (BH) binaries. GW astronomy holds great promise for testing general relativity, but also for investigating open astrophysical questions not amenable to traditional electromagnetic observations. One such question concerns the origin of stellar mass BH binaries in the universe: do these form primarily from evolution of isolated binaries of massive stars, or do they form through more exotic dynamical channels? The best studied dynamical formation channel involves multibody interactions of BHs and stars in dense globular cluster environments, but many other dynamical scenarios have recently been proposed, ranging from the Kozai effect in hierarchical triple systems to BH binary formation in the outskirts of Toomre-unstable accretion disks surrounding supermassive black holes. The BH binaries formed through these processes will have different distributions of observable parameters (e.g. mass ratios, spins) than BH binaries formed through the evolution of isolated binary stars. In my talk I will overview these and other dynamical formation scenarios, and summarize the key observational tests that will enable Advanced LIGO or other future detectors to determine what formation pathway creates the majority of binary BHs in the universe. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, January 30, 2017 2:42PM - 3:18PM |
S14.00003: Binary Black Holes from Dense Star Clusters Invited Speaker: Carl Rodriguez The recent detections of gravitational waves from merging binary black holes have the potential to revolutionize our understanding of compact object astrophysics. But to fully utilize this new window into the universe, we must compare these observations to detailed models of binary black hole formation throughout cosmic time. In this talk, I will review our current understanding of cluster dynamics, describing how binary black holes can be formed through gravitational interactions in dense stellar environments, such as globular clusters and galactic nuclei. I will review the properties and merger rates of binary black holes from the dynamical formation channel. Finally, I will describe how the spins of a binary black hole are determined by its formation history, and how we can use this to discriminate between dynamically-formed binaries and those formed from isolated evolution in galactic fields. [Preview Abstract] |
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