Binary black hole

A binary black hole (BBH) is a system consisting of two black holes in close orbit around each other. Like black holes themselves, binary black holes are often divided into stellar binary black holes, formed either as remnants of high-mass binary star systems or by dynamic processes and mutual capture, and binary supermassive black holes believed to be a result of galactic mergers. A binary black hole (BBH) is a system consisting of two black holes in close orbit around each other. Like black holes themselves, binary black holes are often divided into stellar binary black holes, formed either as remnants of high-mass binary star systems or by dynamic processes and mutual capture, and binary supermassive black holes believed to be a result of galactic mergers. For many years, proving the existence of binary black holes was made difficult because of the nature of black holes themselves, and the limited means of detection available. However, in the event that a pair of black holes were to merge, an immense amount of energy should be given off as gravitational waves, with distinctive waveforms that can be calculated using general relativity. Therefore, during the late 20th and early 21st century, binary black holes became of great interest scientifically as a potential source of such waves, and a means by which gravitational waves could be proven to exist. Binary black hole mergers would be one of the strongest known sources of gravitational waves in the Universe, and thus offer a good chance of directly detecting such waves. As the orbiting black holes give off these waves, the orbit decays, and the orbital period decreases. This stage is called binary black hole inspiral. The black holes will merge once they are close enough. Once merged, the single hole settles down to a stable form, via a stage called ringdown, where any distortion in the shape is dissipated as more gravitational waves. In the final fraction of a second the black holes can reach extremely high velocity, and the gravitational wave amplitude reaches its peak. The existence of stellar-mass binary black holes (and gravitational waves themselves) were finally confirmed when LIGO detected GW150914 (detected September 2015, announced February 2016), a distinctive gravitational wave signature of two merging stellar-mass black holes of around 30 solar masses each, occurring about 1.3 billion light years away. In its final 20 ms of spiraling inward and merging, GW150914 released around 3 solar masses as gravitational energy, peaking at a rate of 3.6×1049 watts — more than the combined power of all light radiated by all the stars in the observable universe put together. Supermassive binary black hole candidates have been found, but not yet categorically proven. Supermassive black-hole binaries are believed to form during galaxy mergers. Some likely candidates for binary black holes are galaxies with double cores still far apart. An example double nucleus is NGC 6240. Much closer black-hole binaries are likely in single core galaxies with double emission lines. Examples include SDSS J104807.74+005543.5 and EGSD2 J142033.66 525917.5. Other galactic nuclei have periodic emissions suggesting large objects orbiting a central black hole, for example in OJ287. The quasar PG 1302-102 appears to have a binary black hole with an orbital period of 1900 days. Stellar mass binary black holes have been demonstrated to exist, by the first detection of a black hole merger event GW150914 by LIGO. When two galaxies collide, the supermassive black holes at their centers do not hit head-on, but would shoot past each other if some mechanism did not bring them together. The most important mechanism is dynamical friction, which brings the black holes to within a few parsecs of each other. At this distance, they form a bound, binary system. The binary system must lose orbital energy somehow, for the black holes to orbit more closely or merge. Initially, the explanation is easy. The black holes transfer energy to gas and stars between them, ejecting matter at high speed via a gravitational slingshot and thereby losing energy. However, the volume of space subject to this effect shrinks as the orbits do, and when the black holes reach a separation of about one parsec, there is so little matter left between them that it would take billions of years to orbit closely enough to merge - more than the age of the universe. Gravitational waves can be a significant contributor, but not until the separation shrinks to a much smaller value, roughly 0.01–0.001 parsec. Nonetheless, supermassive black holes appear to have merged, and what appears to be a pair in this intermediate range has been observed, in PKS 1302-102. The question of how this happens is the 'final parsec problem'.