Abstract
In this review a summary is given on recent theoretical work, on understanding accreting supermassive black hole binaries in the gravitational wave (GW)-driven regime. A particular focus is given to theoretical predictions of properties of disks and jets in these systems during the gravitational wave driven phase. Since a previous review by Schnittman 2013, which focussed on Newtonian aspects of the problem, various relativistic aspects have been studied. In this review we provide an update on these relativistic aspects. Further, a perspective is given on recent observational developments that have seen a surge in the number of proposed supermassive black hole binary candidates. The prospect of bringing theoretical and observational efforts closer together makes this an exciting field of research for years to come.
Highlights
The study of supermassive black hole binary evolution is an old research field dating back at least as far as 1980 [1,2] where key physical processes operating on a diverse range of length scales were identified
A full discussion of the evolution through the parsec scale is far beyond the scope of this review, but it seems increasingly more difficult to ignore the wealth of possible ways for nature to overcome the parsec scale barrier. It will be of greatest interest in the context of the Laser Interferometric Space Antenna (LISA) [30,31] mission to understand in detail when and at what rate supermassive black hole binaries merge as a function of cosmic time
These findings have advanced our understanding of the role of accreting black hole binaries as electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational wave sources
Summary
The study of supermassive black hole binary evolution is an old research field dating back at least as far as 1980 [1,2] where key physical processes operating on a diverse range of length scales were identified. A full discussion of the evolution through the parsec scale is far beyond the scope of this review, but it seems increasingly more difficult to ignore the wealth of possible ways for nature to overcome the (theoretical, but not actual) parsec scale barrier It will be of greatest interest in the context of the Laser Interferometric Space Antenna (LISA) [30,31] mission to understand in detail when and at what rate supermassive black hole binaries merge as a function of cosmic time. On scales of several to hundreds of gravitational radii, the gravitational waves emitted will constitute a large signal for the LISA mission planned in the early 2030s, which e.g., would allow a pre-merger localization of the source [42]
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