Spiral fusion of supermassive black holes

Spiral fusion of supermassive black holes

The new model brings scientists closer to understanding the variety of light signals created when two supermassive black holes (millions and billions times more massive than the Sun) spiral along toward a collision. For the first time, computer simulations involving the physical effects of Einstein’s general theory of relativity show that gas in such systems will glow primarily in UV and X-ray light.

Almost every galaxy with parameters of the Milky Way contains a black hole in the center. Observations show that galactic fusions occur frequently, but so far no one has been able to see the process of collision of giant black holes. However, scientists were able to notice the merging of stellar-mass black holes (from three to several dozen solar ones) using LIGO. In the specific case, gravitational waves were created - ripples in space and time, moving at the speed of light.

Gas shines brightly in computer simulations of supermassive black holes with 40 orbits from merging. Such models will help identify real examples of such binary systems

Mergers for supermassive black holes will be harder to determine. The fact is that the Earth itself is too noisy. It shakes from seismic vibrations and gravitational changes from atmospheric disturbances. Therefore, the detectors must be in space, as planned with LISA in the 2030s. It is important to note that supermassive binary systems will differ from their smaller companions in a gas-rich environment. Scientists suspect that a supernova explosion that forms a black hole also blows most of the surrounding gas. The black hole is so quickly absorbed by the remnants that when you merge, there is nothing left for the “dinner” and no light signal occurs.

But let's not forget that the fusion of supermassive black holes occurs against the background of a galactic fusion, which means there is an escort from clouds of gas and dust, stars and planets. Most likely, the galactic collision pushes a large part of this material closer to the black holes that continue to feed. As they get closer, the magnetic and gravitational forces heat the remaining gas, and astronomers can lock in signals.

The new simulation shows the three orbits of a pair of supermassive black holes in 40 orbits from the merger. It can be seen that at this stage of the process, light is emitted only in UV light using some high-energy X-rays.

This 360-degree vision sends us to the center of two rotating supermassive black holes at a distance of 30 million km from each other with an orbital period of 46 minutes. You can see how black holes distort the star background and capture the light. A distinctive feature is the photon ring. The entire system will have 1 million solar masses Three areas of light emitting gas heat up when black holes merge. This forms a large ring around the system, as well as two smaller rings around each one. All these objects emit mainly UV rays. When gas flows into a mini-disk at high speed, the UV light of the disk contacts each black hole crown (a region of high-energy subatomic particles above and below the disk). When the accretion rate is lower, UV light tarnishes relative to X-rays.

Based on simulations, scientists expect x-rays created by “almost merging” to be brighter than in single supermassive black holes. For the simulation, the Blue Waters supercomputer was used for 46 days on 9600 computing cores. The original simulation estimates the gas temperature. The team plans to refine the code to simulate how system parameters change, such as temperature, distance, total mass and accretion rate. Scientists are interested in understanding what happens to gas traveling between two black holes.

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