No abstract

We describe the Sloan

The fourth generation of the Sloan

The primary components of two new candidate events (GW190403 051519 and GW190426 190642) fall in the mass gap predicted by pair-instability supernova theory. We also expand the population of binaries with significantly asymmetric mass ratios reported in GWTC-2 by an additional two events (q < 0.61 and q < 0.62 at 90% credibility for GW190403 051519 and GW190917 114630 respectively), and find that 2 of the 8 new events have effective inspiral spins χ eff > 0 (at 90% credibility), while no binary is consistent with χ eff < 0 at the same significance.

The fourth generation of the Sloan

No abstract

The evolution of a stellar bar transforms not only the galactic disc, but also the host dark matter halo. We present high‐resolution, fully self‐consistent N‐body simulations that clearly demonstrate that dark matter halo central density cusps flatten as the bar torques the halo. This effect is independent of the bar formation mode and occurs even for rather short bars. The halo and bar evolution is mediated by resonant interactions between orbits in the halo and the bar pattern speed, as predicted by linear Hamiltonian perturbation theory. The bar lengthens and slows as it loses angular momentum, a process that occurs even in rather warm discs. We demonstrate that the bar and halo response can be critically underestimated for experiments that are unable to resolve the relevant resonant dynamics; this occurs when the phase space in the resonant region is undersampled or plagued by noise.

During a galaxy merger, the supermassive black hole (SMBH) in each galaxy is thought to sink to the center of the potential and form a supermassive black hole binary; this binary can eject stars via 3body scattering, bringing the SMBHs ever closer. In a static spherical galaxy model, the binary stalls at a separation of about a parsec after ejecting all the stars in its loss cone -this is the well-known final parsec problem. Earlier work has shown that the centrophilic orbits in triaxial galaxy models are key in refilling the loss cone at a high enough rate to prevent the black holes from stalling. However, the evolution of binary SMBHs has never been explored in axisymmetric galaxies, so it is not clear if the final parsec problem persists in these systems. Here we use a suite of direct N -body simulations to follow SMBH binary evolution in galaxy models with a range of ellipticity. For the first time, we show that mere axisymmetry can solve the final parsec problem; we find the the SMBH evolution is independent of N for an axis ratio of c/a = 0.8, and that the SMBH binary separation reaches the gravitational radiation regime for c/a = 0.75.