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Title:
Pairing of Supermassive Black Holes in Unequal-Mass Galaxy Mergers
Authors:
Callegari, Simone; Mayer, Lucio; Kazantzidis, Stelios; Colpi, Monica; Governato, Fabio; Quinn, Thomas; Wadsley, James
Affiliation:
AA(Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Zürich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-9057 Zürich, Switzerland ), AB(Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Zürich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-9057 Zürich, Switzerland ; Institut für Astronomie, ETH Zürich-Hönggerberg, Wolfgang-Pauli-Strasse 16, CH-8093 Zürich, Switzerland ), AC(Center for Cosmology and AstroParticle Physics; and Department of Physics; and Department of Astronomy, The Ohio State University, 191 West Woodruff Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, USA ), AD(Università Milano Bicocca, Dipartimento di Fisica G. Occhialini, Piazza della Scienza 3, I-20126 Milano, Italy ), AE(Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Box 351580, Seattle, WA 98195, USA ), AF(Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Box 351580, Seattle, WA 98195, USA ), AG(Department of Physics and Astronomy, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, ON L8S 4M1, Canada)
Publication:
The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Volume 696, Issue 1, pp. L89-L92 (2009). (ApJL Homepage)
Publication Date:
05/2009
Origin:
IOP
ApJ Keywords:
black hole physics, cosmology: theory, galaxies: interactions, hydrodynamics, methods: numerical
DOI:
10.1088/0004-637X/696/1/L89
Bibliographic Code:
2009ApJ...696L..89C

Abstract

We examine the pairing process of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) down to scales of 20-100 pc using a set of N-body/SPH simulations of binary mergers of disk galaxies with mass ratios of 1:4 and 1:10. Our numerical experiments are designed to represent merger events occurring at various cosmic epochs. The initial conditions of the encounters are consistent with the ΛCDM paradigm of structure formation, and the simulations include the effects of radiative cooling, star formation (SF), and supernovae feedback. We find that the pairing of SMBHs depends sensitively on the amount of baryonic mass preserved in the center of the companion galaxies during the last phases of the merger. In particular, due to the combination of gasdynamics and SF, we find that a pair of SMBHs can form efficiently in 1:10 minor mergers, provided that galaxies are relatively gas-rich (gas fractions of 30% of the disk mass) and that the mergers occur at relatively high redshift (z ~ 3), when dynamical friction timescales are shorter. Since 1:10 mergers are most common events during the assembly of galaxies, and mergers are more frequent at high redshift when galaxies are also more gas-rich, our results have positive implications for future gravitational wave experiments such as the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna.
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