by Shankar, F. and Marulli, F. and Mathur, S. and Bernardi, M. and Bournaud, F.
9 pages, 4 Figures. Accepted by A&A

There is mounting evidence that a significant fraction of Black Holes (BHs) today live in late-type galaxies, including bulge-less galaxies and those hosting pseudobulges, and are significantly undermassive with respect to the scaling relations followed by their counterpart BHs in classical bulges of similar stellar (or even bulge) mass. Here we discuss the predictions of two state-of-the-art hierarchical galaxy formation models in which BHs grow via mergers and, in one, also via disk instability. Our aim is to understand if the wealth of new data on local BH demography is consistent with standard models. We follow the merger trees of representative subsamples of BHs and compute the fractional contributions of different processes to the final BH mass. We show that the model in which BHs always closely follow the growth of their host bulges, also during late disk instabilities (i.e., bars), produces too narrow a distribution of BHs at fixed stellar mass to account for the numerous low-mass BHs now detected in later-type galaxies. Models with a looser connection between BH growth and bar instability instead predict the existence of a larger number of undermassive BHs, in better agreement with the observations. The scatter in the updated local BH-bulge mass relation (with no restriction on galaxy type) appears to be quite large when including later-type systems, but it can still be managed to be reproduced within current hierarchical models. However, the fuelling of BHs during the late bar-instability mode needs to be better quantified/improved to properly fit the data. We conclude discussing how the possibly large number of BHs in later type galaxies demands for an in-depth revision of the local BH mass function and its modelling.

by Sopuerta, Carlos F. and Yunes, Nicolas
10 pages, 3 figures. LaTeX, JPCS style. Submitted to the proceedings of the 9th Edoardo Amaldi Conference on Gravitational Waves, and the 2011 Numerical Relativity – Data Analysis (NRDA) meeting, held 10-15 July 2011 in Cardiff, Wales, UK, July 10-15 2011

We describe a new kludge scheme to model the dynamics of generic extreme-mass-ratio inspirals (EMRIs; stellar compact objects spiraling into a spinning supermassive black hole) and their gravitational-wave emission. The Chimera scheme is a hybrid method that combines tools from different approximation techniques in General Relativity: (i) A multipolar, post-Minkowskian expansion for the far-zone metric perturbation (the gravitational waveforms) and for the local prescription of the self-force; (ii) a post-Newtonian expansion for the computation of the multipole moments in terms of the trajectories; and (iii) a BH perturbation theory expansion when treating the trajectories as a sequence of self-adjusting Kerr geodesics. The EMRI trajectory is made out of Kerr geodesic fragments joined via the method of osculating elements as dictated by the multipolar post-Minkowskian radiation-reaction prescription. We implemented the proper coordinate mapping between Boyer-Lindquist coordinates, associated with the Kerr geodesics, and harmonic coordinates, associated with the multipolar post-Minkowskian decomposition. The Chimera scheme is thus a combination of approximations that can be used to model generic inspirals of systems with extreme to intermediate mass ratios, and hence, it can provide valuable information for future space-based gravitational-wave observatories, like LISA, and even for advanced ground detectors. The local character in time of our multipolar post-Minkowskian self-force makes this scheme amenable to study the possible appearance of transient resonances in generic inspirals.

by Baker, John G. and Thorpe, James Ira
to be submitted to Physical Review Letters

We consider a class of proposed gravitational wave detectors based on multiple atomic interferometers separated by large baselines and referenced by common laser systems. We compute the sensitivity limits of these detectors due to intrinsic phase noise of the light sources, non-inertial motion of the light sources, and atomic shot noise and compare them to sensitivity limits for traditional light interferometers. We find that atom interferometers and light interferometers are limited in a nearly identical way by intrinsic phase noise and that both require similar mitigation strategies (e.g. multiple arm instruments) to reach interesting sensitivities. The sensitivity limit from motion of the light sources is slightly different and favors the atom interferometers in the low-frequency limit, although the limit in both cases is severe.

by Barausse, Enrico
25 pages, 15 figures

[Abridged] [...] In this paper, we study the mass and spin evolution of massive black holes within a semianalytical galaxy-formation model that follows the evolution of dark-matter halos along merger trees, as well as that of the baryonic components (hot gas, stellar and gaseous bulges, and stellar and gaseous galactic disks). This allows us to study the mass and spin evolution of massive black holes in a self-consistent way, by taking into account the effect of the gas present in galactic nuclei both during the accretion phases and during mergers. Also, we present predictions, as a function of redshift, for the fraction of gas-rich black-hole mergers — in which the spins prior to the merger are aligned due to the gravito-magnetic torques exerted by the circumbinary disk — as opposed to gas-poor mergers, in which the orientation of the spins before the merger is roughly isotropic. These predictions may be tested by LISA or similar spaced-based gravitational-wave detectors such as eLISA/NGO or SGO.

by Lou, Yu-Qing and Wu, Yi-Hong

There have been reports of possible detections of intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) in globular clusters (GCs). Empirically, there exists a tight correlation between the central supermassive black hole (SMBH) mass and the mean velocity dispersion of elliptical galaxies, “pseudobulges” and classical bulges of spiral galaxies. We explore such a possible correlation for IMBHs in spherical GCs. In our model of self-similar general polytropic quasi-static dynamic evolution of GCs, a criterion of forming an IMBH is proposed. The key result is M(BH) = L o^1/(1-n) where M(BH) is the IMBH mass, o is the GC mean stellar velocity, L is a coefficient, and 2/3 < n < 1.

by Anders, P. and Baumgardt, H. and Gaburov, E. and Zwart, S. Portegies
14 pages incl. 3 pages with figures and 4 pages of tables (analysis results), MNRAS in press

Most recent progress in understanding the dynamical evolution of star clusters relies on direct N-body simulations. Owing to the computational demands, and the desire to model more complex and more massive star clusters, hardware calculational accelerators, such as GRAPE special-purpose hardware or, more recently, GPUs (i.e. graphics cards), are generally utilised. In addition, simulations can be accelerated by adjusting parameters determining the calculation accuracy (i.e. changing the internal simulation time step used for each star).

We extend our previous thorough comparison (Anders et al. 2009) of basic quantities as derived from simulations performed either with STARLAB/KIRA or NBODY6. Here we focus on differences arising from using different hardware accelerations (including the increasingly popular graphic card accelerations/GPUs) and different calculation accuracy settings.

We use the large number of star cluster models (for a fixed stellar mass function, without stellar/binary evolution, primordial binaries, external tidal fields etc) already used in the previous paper, evolve them with STARLAB/KIRA (and NBODY6, where required), analyse them in a consistent way and compare the averaged results quantitatively. For this quantitative comparison, we apply the bootstrap algorithm for functional dependencies developed in our previous study.

In general we find very high comparability of the simulation results, independent of the used computer hardware (including the hardware accelerators) and the used N-body code. For the tested accuracy settings we find that for reduced accuracy (i.e. time step at least a factor 2.5 larger than the standard setting) most simulation results deviate significantly from the results using standard settings. The remaining deviations are comprehensible and explicable.

by Haas, Roland and Shcherbakov, Roman V. and Bode, Tanja and Laguna, Pablo
15 pages, 17 figures, submitted to Astrophysical Journal

We present numerical relativity results of tidal disruptions of white dwarfs from ultra-close encounters with a spinning, intermediate mass black hole. These encounters require a full general relativistic treatment of gravity. We show that the disruption process and prompt accretion of the debris strongly depend on the magnitude and orientation of the black hole spin. However, the late-time accretion onto the black hole follows the same decay, $latex \dot{M}$ ~ t^{-5/3}, estimated from Newtonian gravity disruption studies. We compute the spectrum of the disk formed from the fallback material using a slim disk model. The disk spectrum peaks in the soft X-rays and sustains Eddington luminosity for 1-3 yrs after the disruption. For arbitrary black hole spin orientations, the disrupted material is scattered away from the orbital plane by relativistic frame dragging, which often leads to obscuration of the inner fallback disk by the outflowing debris. The disruption events also yield bursts of gravitational radiation with characteristic frequencies of ~3.2 Hz and strain amplitudes of ~10^{-18} for galactic intermediate mass black holes. The optimistic rate of considered ultra-close disruptions is consistent with no sources found in ROSAT all-sky survey. The future missions like Wide-Field X-ray Telescope (WFXT) could observe dozens of events.

by Nissanke, Samaya and Vallisneri, Michele and Nelemans, Gijs and Prince, Thomas A.
17 pages, 3 figures, 5 tables, to be submitted to the Astrophysical Journal

Compact Galactic binaries where at least one member is a white dwarf (WD) or neutron star constitute the majority of individually detectable sources for future low-frequency space-based gravitational-wave (GW) observatories; in addition, they form an unresolved continuum, the dominant Galactic foreground at frequencies below a few mHz. A handful of ultra-compact binaries, observed at optical, ultraviolet and X-ray wavelengths, are known verification sources for space-based GW interferometers. Due to the paucity of electromagnetic observations, the majority of studies of Galactic-binary populations so far have been based on population-synthesis simulations. However, recent surveys have reported several new detections of compact binaries including double WDs, providing new constraints for population estimates. In this article, we evaluate the impact of revised local densities of interacting WD binaries on future low-frequency GW observations. Specifically: we consider five scenarios that explain these densities with different assumptions on the formation of interacting systems; we simulate corresponding populations of detached and interacting WD binaries; we estimate the number of individually detectable GW sources and the magnitude of the confusion-noise foreground, in the case of two GW interferometers with armlengths of 1 and 5 Mkm. We confirm earlier estimates of thousands of detached-binary detections, but project only a few ten to a few hundred detections of interacting systems. We also confirm estimates for the confusion-noise foreground (except in one scenario that explains smaller local densities of interacting systems with fewer progenitor detached systems). Last, we provide a general scaling argument that shows that the magnitude of the GW foreground can be derived robustly from the merger rate of Galactic WD binaries, and depends only weakly on the structure of the Galaxy.

by Vallisneri, Michele and Galley, Chad R.
24 pages, 7 PDF figures. Mathematica code at http://www.vallis.org/publications/sensitivity

The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is used in gravitational-wave observations as the basic figure of merit for detection confidence and, together with the Fisher matrix, for the amount of physical information that can be extracted from a detected signal. SNRs are usually computed from a sensitivity curve, which describes the gravitational-wave amplitude needed by a monochromatic source of given frequency to achieve a threshold SNR. For interferometric space-based detectors similar to LISA, which are sensitive to long-lived signals and have constantly changing position and orientation, exact SNRs need to be computed on a source-by-source basis. For convenience, most authors prefer to work with sky-averaged sensitivities, accepting inaccurate SNRs for individual sources and giving up control over the statistical distribution of SNRs for source populations. In this paper, we describe a straightforward end-to-end recipe to compute the non-sky-averaged sensitivity of interferometric space-based detectors of any geometry, and we use it to generate a sampling distribution of sensitivities for a given source population. In effect, we derive error bars for the sky-averaged sensitivity curve. As a worked-out example, we consider isotropic and Galactic-disk populations of monochromatic sources, as observed with the “classic LISA” configuration. We confirm that the (standard) inverse-rms average sensitivity for the isotropic population remains the same whether or not the LISA orbits are included in the computation. However, detector motion tightens the distribution of sensitivities, so for 50% of sources the sensitivity is within 30% of its average. For the Galactic-disk population, the average and distribution of the sensitivity for a moving detector turn out to be similar to the isotropic case.

by Devecchi, B. and Volonteri, M. and Rossi, E. M. and Colpi, M. and Zwart, S. Portegies
12 pages, MNRAS, accepted

We present results of simulations aimed at tracing the formation of nuclear star clusters (NCs) and black hole (BH) seeds, in a cosmological context. We focus on two mechanisms for the formation of BHs at high redshifts: as end-products of (1) Population III stars in metal free halos, and of (2) runaway stellar collisions in metal poor NCs. Our model tracks the chemical, radiative and mechanical feedback of stars on the baryonic component of the evolving halos. This procedure allows us to evaluate when and where the conditions for BH formation are met, and to trace the emergence of BH seeds arising from the dynamical channel, in a cosmological context. BHs start to appear already at z~30 as remnants of Population III stars. The efficiency of this mechanism begins decreasing once feedbacks become increasingly important. Around redshift z~15, BHs mostly form in the centre of mildly metal enriched halos inside dense NCs. The seed BHs that form along the two pathways have at birth a mass around 100-1000M\odot. The occupation fraction of BHs is a function of both halo mass and mass growth rate: at a given z, heavier and faster growing halos have a higher chance to form a native BH, or to acquire an inherited BH via merging of another system. With decreasing z, the probability of finding a BH shifts toward progressively higher mass halo intervals. This is due to the fact that, at later cosmic times, low mass systems rarely form a seed, and already formed BHs are deposited into larger mass systems due to hierarchical mergers. Our model predict that at z=0, all halos above 10^11M\odot should host a BH (in agreement with observational results), most probably inherited during their lifetime. Halos less massive then 10^9M\odot have a higher probability to host a native BH, but their occupation fraction decreases below 10%.

by Li, Shuo and Liu, F. K. and Berczik, Peter and Chen, Xian and Spurzem, Rainer
38 pages, 10 figues; accepted for publication in ApJ

Supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs) are the products of frequent galaxy mergers. The coalescence of the SMBHBs is a distinct source of gravitational wave (GW) radiation. The detections of the strong GW radiation and their possible electromagnetic counterparts are essential. Numerical relativity suggests that the post-merger supermassive black hole (SMBH) gets a kick velocity up to 4000 km/s due to the anisotropic GW radiations. Here we investigate the dynamical co-evolution and interaction of the recoiling SMBHs and their galactic stellar environments with one million direct N-body simulations including the stellar tidal disruption by the recoiling SMBHs. Our results show that the accretion of disrupted stars does not significantly affect the SMBH dynamical evolution. We investigate the stellar tidal disruption rates as a function of the dynamical evolution of oscillating SMBHs in the galactic nuclei. Our simulations show that most of stellar tidal disruptions are contributed by the unbound stars and occur when the oscillating SMBHs pass through the galactic center. The averaged disruption rate is ~10^{-6} M_\odot yr^{-1}, which is about an order of magnitude lower than that by a stationary SMBH at similar galactic nuclei. Our results also show that a bound star cluster is around the oscillating SMBH of about ~ 0.7% the black hole mass. In addition, we discover a massive cloud of unbound stars following the oscillating SMBH. We also investigate the dependence of the results on the SMBH masses and density slopes of the galactic nuclei.

by Hayasaki, Kimitake and Yagi, Kent and Tanaka, Takahiro and Mineshige, Shin
10 pages, 2 figures, submitted to ApJ

When binary black holes are embedded in a gaseous environment, a rotating disk surrounding them, the so-called circumbinary disk, will be formed. The binary exerts a gravitational torque on the circumbinary disk and thereby the orbital angular momentum is transferred to it, while the angular momentum of the circumbinary disk is transferred to the binary through the mass accretion. The binary undergoes an orbital decay due to both the gravitational wave emission and the binary-disk interaction. This causes the phase evolution of the gravitational wave signal. The precise measurement of the gravitational wave phase thus may provide information regarding the circumbinary disk. In this paper, we assess the detectability of the signature of the binary-disk interaction using the future space-borne gravitational wave detectors such as DECIGO and BBO by the standard matched filtering analysis. We find that the effect of the circumbinary disk around binary black holes in the mass range $latex 6M_sun\le{M}\lesssim3\times10^3M_sun$ is detectable at a statistically significant level in five year observation, provided that gas accretes onto the binary at a rate greater than $latex \dot{M}\sim1.4\times10^{17} [gs^{-1}] j^{-1}(M/10M_sun)^{33/23}$ with 10% mass-to-energy conversion efficiency, where j represents the efficiency of the angular momentum transfer from the binary to the circumbinary disk. We show that $latex O(0.1)$ coalescence events are expected to occur in sufficiently dense molecular clouds in five year observation. We also point out that the circumbinary disk is detectable, even if its mass at around the inner edge is by over 10 orders of magnitude less than the binary mass.

by Harko, Tiberiu and Mocanu, Gabriela
10 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

We analyze the general relativistic oscillations of thin accretion disks around compact astrophysical objects interacting with the surrounding medium through non-gravitational forces. The interaction with the external medium (a thermal bath) is modeled via a friction force, and a random force, respectively. The general equations describing the stochastically perturbed disks are derived by considering the perturbations of trajectories of the test particles in equatorial orbits, assumed to move along the geodesic lines. By taking into account the presence of a viscous dissipation and of a stochastic force we show that the dynamics of the stochastically perturbed disks can be formulated in terms of a general relativistic Langevin equation. The stochastic energy transport equation is also obtained. The vertical oscillations of the disks in the Schwarzschild and Kerr geometries are considered in detail, and they are analyzed by numerically integrating the corresponding Langevin equations. The vertical displacements, velocities and luminosities of the stochastically perturbed disks are explicitly obtained for both the Schwarzschild and the Kerr cases.

by Blecha, Laura and Loeb, Abraham and Narayan, Ramesh
20 pages, 9 figures. Submitted to MNRAS

We present a first attempt to model the narrow-line (NL) region of active galactic nuclei (AGN) in hydrodynamic simulations of galaxy mergers, using a novel physical prescription. This model is used to determine the origin of double-peaked NL (dNL) AGN in merging galaxies and their connection to supermassive black hole (SMBH) pairs, motivated by recent observations of such objects. We find that dNL AGN induced by the relative motion of SMBH pairs are a generic but short-lived feature of gaseous major mergers. dNL AGN are most likely to be observed in late-stage mergers, during the kpc-scale phase of SMBH inspiral or soon after the SMBH merger. However, even within the kpc-scale phase, only a minority of dNL AGN are directly induced by SMBH motion; their lifetimes are typically a few Myr. Most double peaks arise from gas kinematics near the SMBH, although prior to the SMBH merger up to 80% of all dNL profiles may be influenced by SMBH motion via altered peak ratios or velocity offsets. The total lifetimes of dNL AGN depend strongly on viewing angle and on properties of the merging galaxies. Also, in a typical merger, at least 10-40% of the double peaks induced by SMBH motion have small projected separations, 0.1-1 kpc, such that dual peaks of stellar surface brightness are not easily resolved. Diffuse tidal features can indicate late-stage galaxy mergers, although they do not distinguish SMBH pairs from merged SMBHs. We show that dNL profiles with peak velocity splittings > 500 km s^-1 or with measurable overall velocity shifts are often associated with SMBH pairs. Our results support the notion that selection of dNL AGN is a promising method for identifying dual SMBH candidates, but demonstrate the critical importance of high-resolution, multi-wavelength follow-up observations, and the use of multiple lines of evidence, for confirming the dual nature of candidate SMBH pairs. (Abridged)

by O’Shaughnessy, R. and Healy, J. and London, L. and Meeks, Z. and Shoemaker, D.
Submitted to PRD

The gravitational wave signature emitted from a merging binary depends on the orientation of an observer relative to the binary. Previous studies suggest that emission along the total initial or total final angular momenta leads to both the strongest and simplest signal from a precessing compact binary. In this paper we describe a concrete counterexample: a binary with $latex m_1/m_2=4$, $latex a_1=0.6 \hat{x} = -a_2$, placed in orbit in the x,y plane. We extract the gravitational wave emission along several proposed emission directions, including the initial (Newtonian) orbital angular momentum; the final (~ initial) total angular momentum; and the dominant principal axis of $latex _M$. Using several diagnostics, we show that the suggested preferred directions are not representative. For example, only for a handful of other directions (0.95). We conclude that the information available in just one direction (or mode) does not adequately encode the complexity of orientation-dependent emission for even short signals from merging black hole binaries. Future investigations of precessing, unequal-mass binaries should carefully explore and model their orientation-dependent emission.

by Lousto, Carlos O. and Zlochower, Yosef and Dotti, Massimo and Volonteri, Marta
17 pages, 10 tables, 14 figures, revtex 4

We explore the newly discovered “hangup-kick” effect, which greatly amplifies the recoil for configuration with partial spin- orbital-angular momentum alignment, by studying a set of 48 new simulations of equal-mass, spinning black-hole binaries. We propose a phenomenological model for the recoil that takes this new effect into account and then use this model, in conjunction with statistical distributions for the spin magnitude and orientations, based on accretion simulations, to find the probabilities for observing recoils of several thousand km/s. In addition, we provide initial parameters, eccentricities, radiated linear and angular momentum, precession rates and remnant mass, spin, and recoils for all 48 configurations. Our results indicate that surveys exploring peculiar (redshifted or blueshifted) differential line-of-sight velocities should observe at least one case above 2000 km/s out of four thousand merged galaxies. The probability that a remnant BH receives a total recoil exceeding the ~2000 km/s escape velocity of large elliptical galaxies is ten times larger. Probabilities of recoils exceeding the escape velocity quickly rise to 5% for galaxies with escape velocities of 1000 km/s and nearly 20% for galaxies with escape velocities of 500 km/s. In addition the direction of these large recoils is strongly peaked toward the angular momentum axis, with very low probabilities of recoils exceeding 350 km/s for angles larger than 45 deg. with respect to the orbital angular momentum axis.

by King, Andrew
to appear in proceedings of `The Golden Age of Cataclysmic Variables’, Memorie Societa’ Astronomica Italiana, 2012 (F. Giovannelli and L. Sabau-Graziati eds.)

I briefly review the progress of accretion disc theory since the seminal paper of Shakura and Sunyaev.

by Zubovas, Kastytis and King, Andrew R.
6 pages, 1 figure, 2 tables; accepted for publication in ApJ Letters

It is widely suspected that AGN activity ultimately sweeps galaxies clear of their gas. We work out the observable properties required to achieve this. Large-scale AGN-driven outflows should have kinetic luminosities $latex \sim \eta\le/2 \sim 0.05\le$ and momentum rates $latex \sim 20\le/c$, where $latex \le$ is the Eddington luminosity of the central black hole and $latex \eta\sim 0.1$ its radiative accretion efficiency. This creates an expanding two-phase medium in which molecular species coexist with hot gas, which can persist after the central AGN has switched off. This picture predicts outflow velocities $latex \sim 1000 – 1500$ km\,s$latex ^{-1}$ and mass outflow rates up to $latex 4000 \msun\,{\rm yr}^{-1}$ on kpc scales, fixed mainly by the host galaxy velocity dispersion (or equivalently black hole mass). All these features agree with those of outflows observed in galaxies such as Mrk231. This strongly suggests that AGN activity is what sweeps galaxies clear of their gas on a dynamical timescale and makes them red and dead. We suggest future observational tests of this picture.

by Johannsen, Tim and Psaltis, Dimitrios and Gillessen, Stefan and Marrone, Daniel P. and Ozel, Feryal and Doeleman, Sheperd S. and Fish, Vincent L.
7 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables, submitted to ApJ

Dynamical mass measurements to date have allowed determinations of the mass M and the distance D of the galactic center black hole Sgr A* as well as those of other nearby supermassive black holes. In the case of Sgr A*, these measurements are limited by a degeneracy between the mass and distance scaling roughly as M ~ D^2. Future very-long baseline interferometric observations will image a bright and narrow ring surrounding the shadow of the supermassive black hole, if its accretion flow is optically thin. In this paper, we show that the combination of dynamical measurements and VLBI imaging of the ring of Sgr A* breaks the degeneracy between mass and distance. We estimate the signal to noise ratio of near-future VLBI arrays consisting of five to six stations and simulate measurements of the mass and distance of Sgr A* using the expected size of the ring image and existing data of stellar ephemerides. We demonstrate that VLBI observations at 1 mm can already improve the error on the mass by a factor of three compared to the results from the monitoring of stellar orbits alone; observations at 0.5 mm can reduce the error by as much as a factor of 7.5. In addition, we calculate the angular sizes of the bright rings of a number of other nearby supermassive black holes and identify the optimal targets besides Sgr A* that could be imaged by a ground-based VLBI array or a future space-VLBI mission allowing for refined mass measurements.

by Binétruy, Pierre and Bohé, Alejandro and Caprini, Chiara and Dufaux, Jean-François
46 pages, 12 figures

We review the main cosmological backgrounds of gravitational waves accessible to detectors in space sensitive to the range $latex 10^{-4}$ to $latex 10^{-1}$ Hz, with a special emphasis on those backgrounds due to phase transitions or networks of cosmic strings. We apply this to identify the scientific potential of the NGO/eLISA mission of ESA, regarding the detectability of such cosmological backgrounds.

by Farr, Will M. and Ames, Jeff and Hut, Piet and Makino, Junichiro and McMillan, Steve and Muranushi, Takayuki and Nakamura, Koichi and Nitadori, Keigo and Zwart, Simon Portegies
5 pages; submitted to New Astronomy

We present a data format for the output of general N-body simulations, allowing the presence of individual time steps. By specifying a standard, different N-body integrators and different visualization and analysis programs can all share the simulation data, independent of the type of programs used to produce the data. Our Particle Stream Data Format, PSDF, is specified in YAML, based on the same approach as XML but with a simpler syntax. Together with a specification of PSDF, we provide background and motivation, as well as specific examples in a variety of computer languages. We also offer a web site from which these examples can be retrieved, in order to make it easy to augment existing codes in order to give them the option to produce PSDF output.

by Zocchi, A. and Bertin, G. and Varri, A. L.
18 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics

We perform a systematic combined photometric and kinematic analysis of a sample of globular clusters under different relaxation conditions, based on their core relaxation time (as listed in available catalogs), by means of two well-known families of spherical stellar dynamical models. Systems characterized by shorter relaxation time scales are expected to be better described by isotropic King models, while less relaxed systems might be interpreted by means of non-truncated, radially-biased anisotropic f^(\nu) models, originally designed to represent stellar systems produced by a violent relaxation formation process and applied here for the first time to the study of globular clusters. The comparison between dynamical models and observations is performed by fitting simultaneously surface brightness and velocity dispersion profiles. For each globular cluster, the best-fit model in each family is identified, along with a full error analysis on the relevant parameters. Detailed structural properties and mass-to-light ratios are also explicitly derived. We find that King models usually offer a good representation of the observed photometric profiles, but often lead to less satisfactory fits to the kinematic profiles, independently of the relaxation condition of the systems. For some less relaxed clusters, f^(\nu) models provide a good description of both observed profiles. Some derived structural characteristics, such as the total mass or the half-mass radius, turn out to be significantly model-dependent. The analysis confirms that, to answer some important dynamical questions that bear on the formation and evolution of globular clusters, it would be highly desirable to acquire larger numbers of accurate kinematic data-points, well distributed over the cluster field.

by Burkert, Andreas and Schartmann, Mark and Alig, Christian and Gillessen, Stefan and Genzel, Reinhard and Fritz, Tobias and Eisenhauer, Frank
22 pages, 13 figures, submitted to ApJ

The origin, structure and evolution of the small gas cloud, G2, is investigated, that is on an orbit almost straight into the Galactic central supermassive black hole (SMBH). G2 is a sensitive probe of the hot accretion zone of Sgr A*, requiring gas temperatures and densities that agree well with models of captured shock-heated stellar winds. Its mass is equal to the critical mass below which cold clumps would be destroyed quickly by evaporation. Its mass is also constrained by the fact that at apocenter its sound crossing timescale was equal to its orbital timescale. Our numerical simulations show that the observed structure and evolution of G2 can be well reproduced if it formed in pressure equilibrium with the surrounding in 1995 at a distance from the SMBH of 7.6e16 cm. If the cloud would have formed at apocenter in the ‘clockwise’ stellar disk as expected from its orbit, it would be torn into a very elongated spaghetti-like filament by 2011 which is not observed. This problem can be solved if G2 is the head of a larger, shell-like structure that formed at apocenter. Our numerical simulations show that this scenario explains not only G2’s observed kinematical and geometrical properties but also the Br_gamma observations of a low surface brightness gas tail that trails the cloud. In 2013, while passing the SMBH G2 will break up into a string of droplets that within the next 30 years mix with the surrounding hot gas and trigger cycles of AGN activity.

by Nixon, Chris and King, Andrew
8 pages, 9 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

We simulate the viscous evolution of an accretion disc around a spinning black hole. In general any such disc is misaligned, and warped by the Lense-Thirring effect. Unlike previous studies we use effective viscosities constrained to be consistent with the internal fluid dynamics of the disc. We find that nonlinear fluid effects, which reduce the effective viscosities in warped regions, can promote the breaking of the disc into two distinct planes. This occurs when the Shakura & Sunyaev dimensionless viscosity parameter alpha is ~ 45 degrees. The break can be a long-lived feature, propagating outwards in the disc on the usual alignment timescale, after which the disc is fully co- or counter-aligned with the hole. Such a break in the disc may be significant in systems where we know the inclination of the outer accretion disc to the line of sight, such as some X-ray binaries: the inner disc, and so any jets, may be noticeably misaligned with respect to the orbital plane.

by Vasiliev, E. and Athanassoula, E.
13 pages, 10 figures

We use both N-body simulations and integration in fixed potentials to explore the stability and the long-term secular evolution of self-consistent, equilibrium, non-rotating, triaxial spheroidal galactic models. More specifically, we consider Dehnen models built with the Schwarzschild method. We show that short-term stability depends on the degree of velocity anisotropy (radially anisotropic models are subject to rapid development of radial-orbit instability). Long-term stability, on the other hand, depends mainly on the properties of the potential, and in particular, on whether it admits a substantial fraction of strongly chaotic orbits. We show that in the case of a weak density cusp (gamma=1 Dehnen model) the N-body model is remarkably stable, while the strong-cusp (gamma=2) model exhibits substantial evolution of shape away from triaxiality, which we attribute to the effect of chaotic diffusion of orbits. The different behaviour of these two cases originates from the different phase space structure of the potential; in the weak-cusp case there exist numerous resonant orbit families that impede chaotic diffusion. We also find that it is hardly possible to affect the rate of this evolution by altering the fraction of chaotic orbits in the Schwarzschild model, which is explained by the fact that the chaotic properties of an orbit are not preserved by the N-body evolution. There are, however, parameters in Schwarzschild modelling that do affect the stability of an N-body model, so we discuss the recipes how to build a `good’ Schwarzschild model.

by Crocker, Roland M.
30 pages, 35 figures

We construct a simple model of the star-formation- (and resultant supernova-) driven mass and energy flows through the inner ~200 pc (in diameter) of the Galaxy. Our modelling is constrained, in particular, by the non-thermal radio continuum and {\gamma}-ray signals detected from the region. The modelling points to a current star-formation rate of 0.04 – 0.12 M\msun/year at 2{\sigma} confidence within the region with best-fit value in the range 0.08 – 0.12 M\msun/year which – if sustained over 10 Gyr – would fill out the ~ 10^9 M\msun stellar population of the nuclear bulge. Mass is being accreted on to the Galactic centre (GC) region at a rate ~0.3M\msun/year. The region’s star-formation activity drives an outflow of plasma, cosmic rays, and entrained, cooler gas. Neither the plasma nor the entrained gas reaches the gravitational escape speed, however, and all this material fountains back on to the inner Galaxy. The system we model can naturally account for the recently-observed ~> 10^6 ‘halo’ of molecular gas surrounding the Central Molecular Zone out to 100-200 pc heights. The injection of cooler, high-metallicity material into the Galactic halo above the GC may catalyse the subsequent cooling and condensation of hot plasma out of this region and explain the presence of relatively pristine, nuclear-unprocessed gas in the GC. The plasma outflow from the GC reaches a height of a few kpc and is compellingly related to the recently-discovered Fermi Bubbles. Our modelling demonstrates that ~ 10^9 M\msun of hot gas is processed through the GC over 10 Gyr. We speculate that the continual star-formation in the GC over the age of the Milky Way has kept the SMBH in a quiescent state thus preventing it from significantly heating the coronal gas, allowing for the continual accretion of gas on to the disk and the sustenance of star formation on much wider scales in the Galaxy [abridged].

by Corda, Christian
9 pages, 2 figures, published in Modern Physics Letters A. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:0901.1193

The cosmological bound of the stochastic background of gravitational waves is analyzed with the aid of the WMAP data, differently from lots of works in literature, where the old COBE data were used. From our analysis, it will result that the WMAP bounds on the energy spectrum and on the characteristic amplitude of the stochastic background of gravitational waves are greater than the COBE ones, but they are also far below frequencies of the earth-based antennas band. At the end of this letter a lower bound for the integration time of a potential detection with advanced LIGO is released and compared with the previous one arising from the old COBE data. Even if the new lower bound is minor than the previous one, it results very long, thus for a possible detection we hope in the LISA interferometer and in a further growth in the sensitivity of advanced projects.

by Giersz, Mirek and Heggie, Douglas C. and Hurley, Jarrod and Hypki, Arkadiusz
15 pages, 24 figures

We describe a major upgrade of a Monte Carlo code which has previously been used for many studies of dense star clusters. We outline the steps needed in order to calibrate the results of the new Monte Carlo code against N-body simulations for large $latex N$ systems, up to N=200000. The new version of the Monte Carlo code (called MOCCA), in addition to the old version, incorporates direct FewBody integrator for three- and four-body interactions, and new treatment of the escape process based on Fokushige and Heggie (2000). Now stars which fulfil the escape criterion are not removed immediately, but can stay in the system for a certain time which depends on the excess of the energy of a star above the critical energy. They are called potential escapers. FewBody integrator allows to follow all interaction channels, which are important for the rate of creation of various types of objects observed in star clusters, and assures that the energy generation by binaries is treated in a meaner similar to the N-body model.

There are at most three parameters which have to be adjusted against N-body simulations for large N. Two (or one, depends on the chosen approach) connected with the escape process and one responsible for determination of the interaction probabilities. The adopted free parameters are independent on N. They allow MOCCA code to reproduce N-body results, in a reasonably precision, not only for the rate of cluster evolution and the cluster mass distribution, but also for the detailed distributions of mass and binding energy of binaries.

The MOCCA code is at present the most advanced code for simulations of real star clusters. It can follow the cluster evolution in details comparable to N-body code, but orders of magnitude faster.

by Barai, Paramita and Proga, Daniel and Nagamine, Kentaro
23 pages, 11 figures, submitted. Uploaded version contains low-resolution color figures. Version with high-resolution figures can be found at: http://www.physics.unlv.edu/~barai/AllPages/Images-Movies/BHaccr_MultiPhase.pdf

(Abridged) We investigate non-spherical behavior of gas accreting onto a central supermassive black hole performing simulations using the SPH code GADGET-3 including radiative cooling and heating by the central X-ray source. As found in earlier 1D studies, our 3D simulations show that the accretion mode depends on the X-ray luminosity (L_X) for a fixed density at infinity and accretion efficiency. In the low L_X limit, gas accretes in a stable, spherically symmetric fashion. In the high L_X limit, the inner gas is significantly heated up and expands, reducing the central mass inflow rate. The expanding gas can turn into a strong enough outflow capable of expelling most of the gas at larger radii. For some intermediate L_X, the accretion flow becomes unstable developing prominent non-spherical features, the key reason for which is thermal instability (TI) as shown by our analyses. Small perturbations of the initially spherically symmetric accretion flow that is heated by the intermediate L_X quickly grow to form cold and dense clumps surrounded by overheated low density regions. The cold clumps continue their inward motion forming filamentary structures; while the hot infalling gas slows down because of buoyancy and can even start outflowing through the channels in between the filaments. We found that the ratio between the mass inflow rates of the cold and hot gas is a dynamical quantity depending on several factors: time, spatial location, and L_X; and ranges between 0 and 4. We briefly discuss astrophysical implications of such TI-driven fragmentation of accreting gas on the formation of clouds in narrow and broad line regions of AGN, the formation of stars, and the observed variability of the AGN luminiosity.

by Mozaffari, Ali
9 Pages, 5 Figures

In previous work, it was been shown that MOdified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) can be tested near the saddle points of the Newtonian gravitational potential using the forthcoming LISA Pathfinder mission. All previous analysis focused on one particular formulation of the MO-Dian theory, here dubbed Type I. We show that in addition to the well known AQUAL formulation (which we dub Type III), another possibility exists in the form of a driven Poisson equation for the MONDian field. We look at similar quantitative and qualitative analysis in this theory and also investigate typical Signal to Noise Ratios (SNR) resulting from these theories for a typical LPF test. We show that a typical 50 km fly-by would amplify the SNR from 28 to 35 between the two theories. We also suggest that SNR will be enhanced for impact parameters as large as 1000km or larger. Null constraints however remain as good but no better in this formulation than any other.

by Bambi, Cosimo
12 pages, 6 figures. To appear in PRD

The super-massive objects in galactic nuclei are thought to be the Kerr black holes predicted by General Relativity, although a definite proof of their actual nature is still lacking. The most massive objects in AGN ($latex M \sim 10^9 M_\odot$) seem to have a high radiative efficiency ($latex \eta \sim 0.4$) and a moderate mass accretion rate ($latex L_{\rm bol}/L_{\rm Edd} \sim 0.3$). The high radiative efficiency could suggest they are very rapidly-rotating black holes. The moderate luminosity could indicate that their accretion disk is geometrically thin. If so, these objects could be excellent candidates to test the Kerr black hole hypothesis. An accurate measurement of the radiative efficiency of an individual AGN may probe the geometry of the space-time around the black hole candidate with a precision comparable to the one achievable with future space-based gravitational-wave detectors like LISA. A robust evidence of the existence of a black hole candidate with $latex \eta > 0.32$ and accreting from a thin disk may be interpreted as an indication of new physics. For the time being, there are several issues to address before using AGN to test the Kerr paradigm, but the approach seems to be promising and capable of providing interesting results before the advent of gravitational wave astronomy.

by Agudo, Ivan and Marscher, Alan P. and Jorstad, Svetlana G. and Gomez, Jose L. and Perucho, Manel and Piner, B. Glenn and Rioja, Maria and Dodson, Richard
Accepted for Publication in The Astrophysical Journal. 11 pages, 6 figures, 4 tables. High resolution images on figure 1 and complete tables 1 and 2 may be provided on request

We present the results from an ultra-high-resolution 7mm Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) study of the relativistic jet in the BL Lacertae object OJ287 from 1995 to 2011 containing 136 total intensity images. Analysis of the image sequence reveals a sharp jet-position-angle swing by >100 deg. during [2004,2006], as viewed in the plane of the sky, that we interpret as the crossing of the jet from one side of the line of sight to the other during a softer and longer term swing of the inner jet. Modulating such long term swing, our images also show for the first time a prominent erratic wobbling behavior of the innermost ~0.4mas of the jet with fluctuations in position angle of up to ~40 deg. over time scales ~2yr. This is accompanied by highly superluminal motions along non-radial trajectories, which reflect the remarkable non-ballistic nature of the jet plasma on these scales. The erratic nature and short time scales of the observed behavior rules out scenarios such as binary black hole systems, accretion disk precession, and interaction with the ambient medium as possible origins of the phenomenon on the scales probed by our observations, although such processes may cause longer-term modulation of the jet direction. We propose that variable asymmetric injection of the jet flow; perhaps related to turbulence in the accretion disk; coupled with hydrodynamic instabilities, leads to the non-ballistic dynamics that cause the observed non-periodic changes in the direction of the inner jet.

by Alsing, Justin and Berti, Emanuele and Will, Clifford and Zaglauer, Helmut
19 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables

We derive the equations of motion, the periastron shift, and the gravitational radiation damping for quasicircular compact binaries in a massive variant of the Brans-Dicke theory of gravity. We also study the Shapiro time delay and the Nordtvedt effect in this theory. By comparing with recent observational data, we put bounds on the two parameters of the theory: the Brans-Dicke coupling parameter \omega_{BD} and the scalar mass m_s. We find that the most stringent bounds come from Cassini measurements of the Shapiro time delay in the Solar System, that yield a lower bound \omega_{BD}>40000 for scalar masses m_s1000 for m_s1250 for m_s<10^{-20} eV. A first estimate suggests that bounds comparable to the Shapiro time delay may come from observations of radiation damping in the eccentric white dwarf-neutron star binary PSR J1141-6545, but a quantitative prediction requires the extension of our work to eccentric orbits.

by Taylor, Paul A. and Miller, John C.
14 pages, 9 figures, submitted to MNRAS

A commonly cited drawback of SPH is the introduction of spurious shear viscosity by the artificial viscosity term in situations involving rotation. Existing approaches for understanding its effect include approximative analytic formulae and disc-averaged behaviour in specific ring-spreading simulations, based on the kinematic contribution of the artificial viscosity. In this work, we have developed a simple, general technique for evaluating the local effect of artificial viscosity directly from the entropic function of each SPH particle. This is simple and quick to implement, and it allows a detailed characterization of its effects as a function of position. Several advantages of this local method are discussed, including its ease in evaluation, its greater accuracy and its broad applicability to arbitary flow geometries and equations of state. Here, we apply this approach to various disc flows, including simulations which implement the commonly-used Balsara switch. Comparisons with existing analytic estimates are made, and examples of quantifying explicit dependencies of the effective viscosity in terms of SPH and flow parameters are given. Additionally, a method for the initial placement of SPH particles which reduces numerical fluctuations is discussed and utilised.

by Nakasato, Naohito
Journal of Computational Science, 2011; See our recent update at http://galaxy.u-aizu.ac.jp/trac/note/wiki/Octree_On_GPU

The kd-tree is a fundamental tool in computer science. Among other applications, the application of kd-tree search (by the tree method) to the fast evaluation of particle interactions and neighbor search is highly important, since the computational complexity of these problems is reduced from O(N^2) for a brute force method to O(N log N) for the tree method, where N is the number of particles. In this paper, we present a parallel implementation of the tree method running on a graphics processing unit (GPU). We present a detailed description of how we have implemented the tree method on a Cypress GPU. An optimization that we found important is localized particle ordering to effectively utilize cache memory. We present a number of test results and performance measurements. Our results show that the execution of the tree traversal in a force calculation on a GPU is practical and efficient.

by Healy, James and Bode, Tanja and Haas, Roland and Pazos, Enrique and Laguna, Pablo and Shoemaker, Deirdre M. and Yunes, Nicolás
4 pages, 5 figures, 1 table

Gravitational wave observations will probe non-linear gravitational interactions and thus enable strong tests of Einstein’s theory of general relativity. We present a numerical relativity study of the late inspiral and merger of binary black holes in scalar-tensor theories of gravity. We consider black hole binaries in an inhomogeneous scalar field, specifically binaries inside a scalar field bubble, in some cases with a potential. We calculate the emission of dipole radiation. We also show how these configurations trigger detectable differences between gravitational waves in scalar-tensor gravity and the corresponding waves in general relativity. We conclude that, barring an external mechanism to induce dynamics in the scalar field, scalar-tensor gravity binary black holes alone are not capable of awaking a dormant scalar field, and are thus observationally indistinguishable from their general relativistic counterparts.

by Constantin, Anca and Seth, Anil
11 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Advances in Astronomy

We discuss the peculiar nature of the nucleus of M94 (NGC 4736) in the context of new measurements of the broad H_alpha emission from HST-STIS observations. We show that this component is unambiguously associated with the high-resolution X-ray, radio, and variable UV sources detected at the optical nucleus of this galaxy. These multi-wavelength observations suggest that NGC 4736 is one of the least luminous broad-line (type 1) LINERs, with Lbol = 2.5 \times 10^40 erg/s. This LINER galaxy has also possibly the least luminous broad line region known (LH_alpha =2.2\times10^37 erg/s). We compare black hole mass estimates of this system to the recently measured ~7 \times 10^6 M_sun dynamical black hole mass measurement. The fundamental plane and M-sigma relationship roughly agree with the measured black hole mass, while other accretion based estimates (the M-FWHM(H_alpha) relation, empirical correlation of BH mass with high-ionization mid IR emission lines, and the X-ray excess variance) provide much lower estimates (~10^5 M_sun). An energy budget test shows that the AGN in this system may be deficient in ionizing radiation relative to the observed emission-line activity. This deficiency may result from source variability or the superposition of multiple sources including supernovae.

by Gillessen, S. and Genzel, R. and Fritz, T. K. and Quataert, E. and Alig, C. and Burkert, A. and Cuadra, J. and Eisenhauer, F. and Pfuhl, O. and Dodds-Eden, K. and Gammie, C. F. and Ott, T.
in press at Nature

Measurements of stellar orbits provide compelling evidence that the compact radio source Sagittarius A* at the Galactic Centre is a black hole four million times the mass of the Sun. With the exception of modest X-ray and infrared flares, Sgr A* is surprisingly faint, suggesting that the accretion rate and radiation efficiency near the event horizon are currently very low. Here we report the presence of a dense gas cloud approximately three times the mass of Earth that is falling into the accretion zone of Sgr A*. Our observations tightly constrain the cloud’s orbit to be highly eccentric, with an innermost radius of approach of only ~3,100 times the event horizon that will be reached in 2013. Over the past three years the cloud has begun to disrupt, probably mainly through tidal shearing arising from the black hole’s gravitational force. The cloud’s dynamic evolution and radiation in the next few years will probe the properties of the accretion flow and the feeding processes of the super-massive black hole. The kilo-electronvolt X-ray emission of Sgr A* may brighten significantly when the cloud reaches pericentre. There may also be a giant radiation flare several years from now if the cloud breaks up and its fragments feed gas into the central accretion zone.

by Dubois, Yohan and Pichon, Christophe and Haehnelt, Martin and Kimm, Taysun and Slyz, Adrianne and Devriendt, Julien and Pogosyan, Dmitry
16 pages, 12 figures, submitted to MNRAS

We use cosmological hydrodynamical simulations to show that a significant fraction of the gas in high redshift rare massive halos falls nearly radially to their very centre on extremely short timescales. This process results in the formation of very compact bulges with specific angular momentum a factor 5-30$latex smaller than the average angular momentum of the baryons in the whole halo. Such low angular momentum originates both from segregation and effective cancellation when the gas flows to the centre of the halo along well defined cold filamentary streams. These filaments penetrate deep inside the halo and connect to the bulge from multiple rapidly changing directions. Structures falling in along the filaments (satellite galaxies) or formed by gravitational instabilities triggered by the inflow (star clusters) further reduce the angular momentum of the gas in the bulge. Finally, the fraction of gas radially falling to the centre appears to increase with the mass of the halo; we argue that this is most likely due to an enhanced cancellation of angular momentum in rarer halos which are fed by more isotropically distributed cold streams. Such an increasingly efficient funnelling of low-angular momentum gas to the centre of very massive halos at high redshift may account for the rapid pace at which the most massive supermassive black holes grow to reach observed masses around $10^9$latex M$_\odot$ at an epoch when the Universe is barely 1 Gyr old.

by Erwin, Peter and Gadotti, Dimitri
pdflatex, 10 pages, 4 figures. Invited paper for Advances in Astronomy special issue: “Seeking for the Leading Actor on the Cosmic Stage: Galaxies versus Supermassive Black Holes”

Studies have suggested that there is a strong correlation between the masses of nuclear star clusters (NSCs) and their host galaxies, a correlation which said to be an extension of the well-known correlations between supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and their host galaxies. But careful analysis of disk galaxies — including 2D bulge/disk/bar decompositions — shows that while SMBHs correlate with the stellar mass of the bulge component of galaxies, the masses of NSCs correlate much better with the total galaxy stellar mass. In addition, the mass ratio M_nsc/M_star,tot for NSCs in spirals (at least those with Hubble types Sc and later) is typically an order of magnitude smaller than the mass ratio M_bh/M_star, bulge of SMBHs. The absence of a universal “central massive object” correlation argues against common formation and growth mechanisms for both SMBHs and NSCs. We also discuss evidence for a break in the NSC-host galaxy correlation: galaxies with Hubble types earlier than Sbc appear to host systematically more massive NSCs than do types Sc and later.

by Johnson, Jarrett L. and Whalen, Daniel J. and Fryer, Christopher L. and Li, Hui
14 pages, 4 figures; submitted to ApJ

The collapse of baryons into extremely massive stars with masses exceeding 10^4 M_Sun in a small fraction of protogalaxies at z > 10 is a promising candidate for the origin of supermassive black holes, some of which grow to a billion solar masses by z ~ 7. We determine the maximum masses such stars can attain by accreting primordial gas. We find that at relatively low accretion rates the strong ionizing radiation of these stars limits their masses to M_* ~ 10^3 M_Sun (dM_acc/dt / 10^-3 M_Sun yr^-1)^8/7, where dM_acc/dt is the rate at which the star gains mass. However, at the higher central infall rates usually found in numerical simulations of protogalactic collapse (>~ 0.1 M_Sun yr^-1), the lifetime of the star instead limits its final mass to >~ 10^6 M_Sun. Furthermore, for the spherical accretion rates at which the star can grow, its ionizing radiation is confined deep within the protogalaxy, so the evolution of the star is decoupled from that of its host galaxy. Lyman alpha emission from the surrounding H II region is trapped in these heavy accretion flows and likely reprocessed into strong Balmer series emission, which may be observable by the James Webb Space Telescope. This, along with strong He II 1640 Angstrom and continuum emission, are likely to be the key observational signatures of the progenitors of supermassive black holes at high redshift.

by Alexander, David M. and Hickox, Ryan C.
42 pages, 8 figures; Extensive review to appear in New Astronomy Reviews

Massive black holes (BHs) are at once exotic and yet ubiquitous, residing in the centers of massive galaxies in the local Universe. Recent years have seen remarkable advances in our understanding of how these BHs form and grow over cosmic time, during which they are revealed as active galactic nuclei (AGN). However, despite decades of research, we still lack a coherent picture of the physical drivers of BH growth, the connection between the growth of BHs and their host galaxies, the role of large-scale environment on the fueling of BHs, and the impact of BH-driven outflows on the growth of galaxies. In this paper we review our progress in addressing these key issues, motivated by the science presented at the “What Drives the Growth of Black Holes?” workshop held at Durham on 26th-29th July 2010, and discuss how these questions may be tackled with current and future facilities.

by Liu, K. and Wex, N. and Kramer, M. and Cordes, J. M. and Lazio, T. J. W.
12 pages, 10 Figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

The discovery of radio pulsars in compact orbits around Sgr A* would allow an unprecedented and detailed investigation of the spacetime of the supermassive black hole. This paper shows that pulsar timing, including that of a single pulsar, has the potential to provide novel tests of general relativity, in particular its cosmic censorship conjecture and no-hair theorem for rotating black holes. These experiments can be performed by timing observations with 100 micro-second precision, achievable with the Square Kilometre Array for a normal pulsar at frequency above 15 GHz. Based on the standard pulsar timing technique, we develop a method that allows the determination of the mass, spin, and quadrupole moment of Sgr A*, and provides a consistent covariance analysis of the measurement errors. Furthermore, we test this method in detailed mock data simulations. It seems likely that only for orbital periods below ~0.3 yr is there the possibility of having negligible external perturbations. For such orbits we expect a ~10^-3 test of the frame dragging and a ~10^-2 test of the no-hair theorem within 5 years, if Sgr A* is spinning rapidly. Our method is also capable of identifying perturbations caused by distributed mass around Sgr A*, thus providing high confidence in these gravity tests. Our analysis is not affected by uncertainties in our knowledge of the distance to the Galactic center, R0. A combination of pulsar timing with the astrometric results of stellar orbits would greatly improve the measurement precision of R0.

by Berger, E. and Zauderer, A. and Pooley, G. G. and Soderberg, A. M. and Sari, R. and Brunthaler, A. and Bietenholz, M. F.
Submitted to ApJ; 22 pages, 2 tables, 9 figures

We present continued radio observations of the tidal disruption event SwiftJ164449.3+573451 extending to \sim216 days after discovery. The data are part of a long-term program to monitor the expansion and energy scale of the relativistic outflow, and to trace the parsec-scale environment around a previously-dormant supermassive black hole (SMBH). The new observations reveal a significant change in the radio evolution starting at \sim1 month, with a brightening at all frequencies that requires an increase in the energy by about an order of magnitude, and an overall density profile around the SMBH of rho \propto r^{-3/2} (0.1-1.2 pc) with a significant flattening at r\sim0.4-0.6 pc. The increase in energy cannot be explained with continuous injection from an L \propto t^{-5/3} tail, which is observed in the X-rays. Instead, we conclude that the relativistic jet was launched with a wide range of Lorentz factors, obeying E(>Gamma) \propto Gamma^{-2.5}. The similar ratio of duration to dynamical timescale for Sw1644+57 and GRBs suggests that this result may be applicable to GRBs as well. The radial density profile may be indicative of Bondi accretion, with the inferred flattening at r\sim0.5 pc in good agreement with the Bondi radius for a \sim10^6 M_sun black hole. The density at \sim0.5 pc is about a factor of 30 times lower than inferred for the Milky Way galactic center, potentially due to a smaller number of mass-shedding massive stars. From our latest observations (\sim216 d) we find that the jet energy is E_{iso}\sim5×10^{53} erg (E_j\sim2.4×10^{51} erg for theta_j=0.1), the radius is r\sim1.2 pc, the Lorentz factor is Gamma\sim2.2, the ambient density is n\sim0.2 cm^{-3}, and the projected size is r_{proj}\sim25 microarcsec. Assuming no future changes in the observed evolution we predict that the radio emission from Sw1644+57 should be detectable with the EVLA for several decades, and will be resolvable with VLBI in a few years.

by Kelly, Brandon C. and Merloni, Andrea
40 pages, 7 figures, review paper accepted for the Advances in Astronomy Special Issue “Seeking for the Leading Actor on the Cosmic Stage: Galaxies versus Supermassive Black Holes”

The black hole mass function of supermassive black holes describes the evolution of the distribution of black hole mass. It is one of the primary empirical tools available for mapping the growth of supermassive black holes and for constraining theoretical models of their evolution. In this review we discuss methods for estimating the black hole mass function, including their advantages and disadvantages. We also review the results of using these methods for estimating the mass function of both active and inactive black holes. In addition, we review current theoretical models for the growth of supermassive black holes that predict the black hole mass function. We conclude with a discussion of directions for future research which will lead to improvement in both empirical and theoretical determinations of the mass function of supermassive black holes.

by Lauer, Tod R. and Bender, Ralf and Kormendy, John and Rosenfield, Philip and Green, Richard F.
29 pages, 11 figures (3 color); Astrophysical Journal accepted

We obtained U_330 and B band images of the M31 nucleus using the High Resolution Camera of the Advanced Camera for Surveys on board the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The spatial resolution in the U_330-band, 0.03″ FWHM, or 0.1 pc at M31, is sufficient to resolve the outskirts of the compact cluster (P3) of UV-bright stars surrounding the M31 black hole. The center of the cluster is marked by an extended source that is both brighter and redder than the other point sources within P3; it is likely to be a blend of several bright stars. We hypothesize that it marks the location of the M31 black hole. Both stellar photometry and a surface brightness fluctuation analysis, show that the P3 stellar population is consistent with early-type main sequence stars formed in a ~100 – ~200 Myr old starburst population. Evolutionary tracks of post early asymptotic giant-branch stars, associated with late-stage evolution of an old population, also traverse the U and U-B domain occupied by the P3 stars; but we argue that only a few stars could be accounted for that way. PEAGB evolution is very rapid, and there is no progenitor population of red giants associated with P3. The result that P3 comprises young stars is consistent with inferences from earlier HST observations of the integrated light of the cluster. Like the Milky Way, M31 harbors a black hole closely surrounded by apparently young stars.

by Rodriguez, Carl L. and Mandel, Ilya and Gair, Jonathan R.
12 pages, 5 figures, submitted to PRD

The detection of gravitational waves from the inspiral of a neutron star or stellar-mass black hole into an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) promises an entirely new look at strong-field gravitational physics. Gravitational waves from these intermediate-mass-ratio inspirals (IMRIs), systems with mass ratios from ~10:1 to ~100:1, may be detectable at rates of up to a few tens per year by Advanced LIGO/Virgo and will encode a signature of the central body’s spacetime. Direct observation of the spacetime will allow us to use the “no-hair” theorem of general relativity to determine if the IMBH is a Kerr black hole (or some more exotic object, e.g. a boson star). Using modified post-Newtonian (pN) waveforms, we explore the prospects for constraining the central body’s mass-quadrupole moment in the advanced-detector era. We use the Fisher information matrix to estimate the accuracy with which the parameters of the central body can be measured. We find that for favorable mass and spin combinations, the quadrupole moment of a non-Kerr central body can be measured to within a ~15% fractional error or better using 3.5 pN order waveforms; on the other hand, we find the accuracy decreases to ~100% fractional error using 2 pN waveforms, except for a narrow band of values of the best-fit non-Kerr quadrupole moment.

by de Araujo, J. C. N. and Aguiar, O. D. and Alves, M. E. S. and Tinto, M.
21 pages, 9 eps figures

We analyze the sensitivities of a geostationary gravitational wave interferometer mission operating in the sub-Hertz band. Our proposed Earth-orbiting detector is expected to meet some of the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission science goals in the lower part of its accessible frequency band ($latex 10^{-4} – 2 \times 10^{-2}$ Hz), and to outperform them by a large margin in the higher-part of it ($latex 2 \times 10^{-2} – 10$ Hz). Since our proposed interferometer will be more sensitive than LISA to supermassive black holes (SMBHs) of masses smaller than $latex \sim 10^{6}$ M$latex _{\odot}$, we will be able to more accurately probe scenarios that account for their formation.

by Liu, F. K. and Wang, Dong and Chen, Xian
47 pages, 9 figures, 1 table; accepted for publication in ApJ

Numerical relativity simulations predict that coalescence of supermassive black hole (SMBH) binaries not only leads to a spin flip but also to a recoiling of the merger remnant SMBHs. In the literature, X-shaped radio sources are popularly suggested to be candidates for SMBH mergers with spin flip of jet-ejecting SMBHs. Here we investigate the spectral and spatial observational signatures of the recoiling SMBHs in radio sources undergoing black hole spin flip. Our results show that SMBHs in most spin-flip radio sources have mass ratio $latex q\ga 0.3$ with a minimum possible value $latex q_{\rm min} \simeq 0.05$. For major mergers, the remnant SMBHs can get a kick velocity as high as $latex 2100 km s^{-1}$ in the direction within an angle $latex \la 40^\circ$ relative to the spin axes of remnant SMBHs, implying that recoiling quasars are biased to be with high Doppler-shifted broad emission lines while recoiling radio galaxies are biased to large apparent spatial off-center displacements. We also calculate the distribution functions of line-of-sight velocity and apparent spatial off-center for spin-flip radio sources with different apparent jet reorientation angles. Our results show that the larger the apparent jet reorientation angle is, the larger the Doppler-shifting recoiling velocity and apparent spatial off-center displacement will be. We investigate the effects of recoiling velocity on the dust torus in spin-flip radio sources and suggest that recoiling of SMBHs would lead to “dust poor” AGNs. Finally, we collect a sample of 19 X-shaped radio objects and for each object give the probability of detecting the predicted signatures of recoiling SMBH.

by Lahav, Carmit Gordon and Meiron, Yohai and Soker, Noam
10 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables

We examine the scatter in the correlation between black hole masses and their host bulge masses, and find that the increase of the scatter with mass suggests that mergers alone cannot produce the observed correlation. A simple merger scenario of small galaxies leads to a proportionality relation between the late-time black hole and bulge masses, with intrinsic scatter increasing along the ridge line of the relation as the square root of the mass. By examining a sample of 87 galaxies, we find that the scatter increases with mass more rapidly than expected from the merger-only explanation. We do not dispute that mergers play a role, but our results favour a universal feedback mechanism that works on all scales. We discuss the possibility that the feedback mechanism that operated during galaxy formation involved the presence of a cooling flow.