Post-Newtonian Dynamics in Dense Star Clusters: Highly Eccentric, Highly Spinning, and Repeated Binary Black Hole Mergers.

We present models of realistic globular clusters with post-Newtonian dynamics for black holes. By modeling the relativistic accelerations and gravitational-wave emission in isolated binaries and during three- and four-body encounters, we find that nearly half of all binary black hole mergers occur inside the cluster, with about 10% of those mergers entering the LIGO/Virgo band with eccentricities greater than 0.1. In-cluster mergers lead to the birth of a second generation of black holes with larger masses and high spins, which, depending on the black hole natal spins, can sometimes be retained in the cluster and merge again. As a result, globular clusters can produce merging binaries with detectable spins regardless of the birth spins of black holes formed from massive stars. These second-generation black holes would also populate any upper mass gap created by pair-instability supernovae.

LISA Sources in Milky Way Globular Clusters.

We explore the formation of double-compact-object binaries in Milky Way (MW) globular clusters (GCs) that may be detectable by the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). We use a set of 137 fully evolved GC models that, overall, effectively match the properties of the observed GCs in the MW. We estimate that, in total, the MW GCs contain ∼21 sources that will be detectable by LISA. These detectable sources contain all combinations of black hole (BH), neutron star, and white dwarf components. We predict ∼7 of these sources will be BH-BH binaries. Furthermore, we show that some of these BH-BH binaries can have signal-to-noise ratios large enough to be detectable at the distance of the Andromeda galaxy or even the Virgo cluster.

Erratum: Binary Black Hole Mergers from Globular Clusters: Implications for Advanced LIGO [Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 051101 (2015)].

This corrects the article DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.051101.

Binary Black Hole Mergers from Globular Clusters: Implications for Advanced LIGO.

The predicted rate of binary black hole mergers from galactic fields can vary over several orders of magnitude and is extremely sensitive to the assumptions of stellar evolution. But in dense stellar environments such as globular clusters, binary black holes form by well-understood gravitational interactions. In this Letter, we study the formation of black hole binaries in an extensive collection of realistic globular cluster models. By comparing these models to observed Milky Way and extragalactic globular clusters, we find that the mergers of dynamically formed binaries could be detected at a rate of ∼100 per year, potentially dominating the binary black hole merger rate. We also find that a majority of cluster-formed binaries are more massive than their field-formed counterparts, suggesting that Advanced LIGO could identify certain binaries as originating from dense stellar environments.

Binary Neutron Star Mergers.

We review the current status of studies of the coalescence of binary neutron star systems. We begin with a discussion of the formation channels of merging binaries and we discuss the most recent theoretical predictions for merger rates. Next, we turn to the quasi-equilibrium formalisms that are used to study binaries prior to the merger phase and to generate initial data for fully dynamical simulations. The quasi-equilibrium approximation has played a key role in developing our understanding of the physics of binary coalescence and, in particular, of the orbital instability processes that can drive binaries to merger at the end of their lifetimes. We then turn to the numerical techniques used in dynamical simulations, including relativistic formalisms, (magneto-)hydrodynamics, gravitational-wave extraction techniques, and nuclear microphysics treatments. This is followed by a summary of the simulations performed across the field to date, including the most recent results from both fully relativistic and microphysically detailed simulations. Finally, we discuss the likely directions for the field as we transition from the first to the second generation of gravitational-wave interferometers and while supercomputers reach the petascale frontier.

Hot Jupiters from secular planet-planet interactions.

About 25 per cent of 'hot Jupiters' (extrasolar Jovian-mass planets with close-in orbits) are actually orbiting counter to the spin direction of the star. Perturbations from a distant binary star companion can produce high inclinations, but cannot explain orbits that are retrograde with respect to the total angular momentum of the system. Such orbits in a stellar context can be produced through secular (that is, long term) perturbations in hierarchical triple-star systems. Here we report a similar analysis of planetary bodies, including both octupole-order effects and tidal friction, and find that we can produce hot Jupiters in orbits that are retrograde with respect to the total angular momentum. With distant stellar mass perturbers, such an outcome is not possible. With planetary perturbers, the inner orbit's angular momentum component parallel to the total angular momentum need not be constant. In fact, as we show here, it can even change sign, leading to a retrograde orbit. A brief excursion to very high eccentricity during the chaotic evolution of the inner orbit allows planet-star tidal interactions to rapidly circularize that orbit, decoupling the planets and forming a retrograde hot Jupiter.

Gas disks to gas giants: simulating the birth of planetary systems.

The ensemble of now more than 250 discovered planetary systems displays a wide range of masses, orbits and, in multiple systems, dynamical interactions. These represent the end point of a complex sequence of events, wherein an entire protostellar disk converts itself into a small number of planetary bodies. Here, we present self-consistent numerical simulations of this process, which produce results in agreement with some of the key trends observed in the properties of the exoplanets. Analogs to our own solar system do not appear to be common, originating from disks near the boundary between barren and (giant) planet-forming.

Planet-planet scattering in the upsilon Andromedae system.

Doppler spectroscopy has detected 152 planets around nearby stars. A major puzzle is why many of their orbits are highly eccentric; all planets in our Solar System are on nearly circular orbits, as is expected if they formed by accretion processes in a protostellar disk. Several mechanisms have been proposed to generate large eccentricities after planet formation, but so far there has been little observational evidence to support any particular model. Here we report that the current orbital configuration of the three giant planets around upsilon Andromedae (upsilon And) probably results from a close dynamical interaction with another planet, now lost from the system. The planets started on nearly circular orbits, but chaotic evolution caused the outer planet (upsilon And d) to be perturbed suddenly into a higher-eccentricity orbit. The coupled evolution of the system then causes slow periodic variations in the eccentricity of the middle planet (upsilon And c). Indeed, we show that upsilon And c periodically returns to a very nearly circular state every 6,700 years.

Measuring neutron-star radii with gravitational-wave detectors.

Coalescing binary neutron stars (NS) are expected to be an important source of gravitational waves (GW) detectable by laser interferometers. We present here a simple method for determining the compactness ratio M/R of NS based on the observed deviation of the GW energy spectrum from point-mass behavior at the end of inspiral. Our method is based on the properties of quasiequilibrium binary NS sequences and does not require the computation of the full GW signal h(t). Combined with the measurement of the NS masses during inspiral, the determination of M/R will allow very strong constraints to be placed on the equation of state of dense nuclear matter.