Electromagnetic variability from circumbinary discs around binary black holes during their post-decoupling epoch

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Mignon-Risse, Raphaël, Varniere, Peggy, Casse, Fabien
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866914177805713408
author Mignon-Risse, Raphaël
Varniere, Peggy
Casse, Fabien
author_facet Mignon-Risse, Raphaël
Varniere, Peggy
Casse, Fabien
contents We present general-relativistic hydrodynamical simulations of inviscid circumbinary discs (CBDs) around near equal-mass binary black holes (BBH) in the binary-disc post-decoupling epoch. We use an approximate BBH spacetime with a post-Newtonian inspiral motion trajectory from ${\sim}80 (M/10^7 \mathrm{M_\odot}) \, \mbox{days}$ (separation of ${\sim}\,30$ gravitational radii) to ${\sim}100 (M/10^7 \mathrm{M_\odot}) \, \mbox{minutes}$ before merger. Initial data for the inspiral runs are produced from circular-orbits runs covering the formation timescale of the overdense {\lq}lump{\rq}, orbiting the CBD inner edge. The CBD non-axisymmetries (spiral waves and lump) lead to non-negligible angular momentum transport with effective viscosity ${α_\mathrm{eff} \, {\sim} \, 10^{-3}{- 2\times 10}^{-2}}$. We post-process these simulations with a general-relativistic ray-tracing code to obtain synthetic observations in thermal emission. We find the lump and its associated electromagnetic (EM) modulation, already reported in the pre-decoupling epoch, to survive post-decoupling up until the end of the simulation. For LISA sources, our findings point to an active EM signature in UV during optimal gravitational wave source localization. For PTA sources and current BBH candidates detected through their optical periodicity: the lump{ in a low-viscosity CBD is a possible, though not unique, origin} for the observed periodicity.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_03338
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Electromagnetic variability from circumbinary discs around binary black holes during their post-decoupling epoch
Mignon-Risse, Raphaël
Varniere, Peggy
Casse, Fabien
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
We present general-relativistic hydrodynamical simulations of inviscid circumbinary discs (CBDs) around near equal-mass binary black holes (BBH) in the binary-disc post-decoupling epoch. We use an approximate BBH spacetime with a post-Newtonian inspiral motion trajectory from ${\sim}80 (M/10^7 \mathrm{M_\odot}) \, \mbox{days}$ (separation of ${\sim}\,30$ gravitational radii) to ${\sim}100 (M/10^7 \mathrm{M_\odot}) \, \mbox{minutes}$ before merger. Initial data for the inspiral runs are produced from circular-orbits runs covering the formation timescale of the overdense {\lq}lump{\rq}, orbiting the CBD inner edge. The CBD non-axisymmetries (spiral waves and lump) lead to non-negligible angular momentum transport with effective viscosity ${α_\mathrm{eff} \, {\sim} \, 10^{-3}{- 2\times 10}^{-2}}$. We post-process these simulations with a general-relativistic ray-tracing code to obtain synthetic observations in thermal emission. We find the lump and its associated electromagnetic (EM) modulation, already reported in the pre-decoupling epoch, to survive post-decoupling up until the end of the simulation. For LISA sources, our findings point to an active EM signature in UV during optimal gravitational wave source localization. For PTA sources and current BBH candidates detected through their optical periodicity: the lump{ in a low-viscosity CBD is a possible, though not unique, origin} for the observed periodicity.
title Electromagnetic variability from circumbinary discs around binary black holes during their post-decoupling epoch
topic High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.03338