Speaker
Description
The talk will cover the recent numerical investigation of a system composed of a Supermassive Black Hole Binary (SMBHB) and a non-self-gravitating, thin, locally isothermal, viscous disk.
The evolution of such a configuration is relevant not only for the expected gravitational-wave signal, but also for electromagnetic searches for SMBHB candidates. In 2-dimensional, Newtonian, numerical simulations, we analyze the influence of the two model parameters: $q$ --- the mass ratio of the binary and $\iota$ --- the inclination angle between the binary and the disk. We found that configurations with relatively low mass ratio, composed of central mass and satellite mass, always settle down in a quasi steady state. On the other hand, configurations characterized by equal or comparable masses may manifest an inability to reach quasi steady state for inclinations $\iota \in (20^\circ,55^\circ)$. This problem does not exist for moderately inclined or highly inclined configurations, i.e., inclinations $\iota \le 20^\circ$ or $\iota \ge 55^\circ$. We try to understand the nature of these phenomena by investigating the binary and viscous torque densities which determine the disk's final density distribution and, in particular, the size of the central gap.
