We simulate black hole binary interactions to examine the probability of mergers and black hole growth and gravitational radiation signals using a specific initial distribution of masses for black holes in globular clusters and a simple semi-analytic formalism for dynamical interactions. We include 3-body recoil and the latest results in numerical relativity for gravitational radiation recoil. It is found that while 99% of binaries are ejected from low metallicity, low mass clusters; metal rich massive clusters retain 5% of their binaries. An interesting fraction of the ejected binaries, especially those from high mass, high metallicity systems, merge on timescales short enough to be gravitational radiation sources during their mergers with rates approaching those expected for galactic field black hole binaries. While the merger rates are comparable, the much larger mass of these binaries and their localization will make them appealing targets for advanced LIGO. We single out two possible Milky Way clusters (NGC 6441 and NGC 6388) as having the properties for a good probability of retention.
Recent observations of white dwarfs in globular clusters indicate that these stars may get a velocity kick during their time as giants. This velocity kick could originate naturally if the mass loss while on the asymptotic giant branch is slightly asymmetric. The kicks may be large enough to dramatically change the radial distribution of young white dwarfs, giving them larger energies than other stars in the cluster. As these energetic white dwarfs travel through the cluster they can impart their excess energy on the other stars in the cluster. This new heat source for globular clusters is expe…
If the winds of an asymptotic-giant-branch stars are sufficiently strong are slightly asymmetric, they can alter the star's trajectory through a globular cluster; therefore, if these winds are asymmetric, one would expect young white dwarfs to be less radially concentrated than either their progenitors or older white dwarfs in globular clusters. This latter effect has recently been observed. Additionally the young white dwarfs should have larger typical velocities than their progenitors. After phase mixing this latter effect is vastly diminished relative to the changes in the spatial distribut…
The wind of an asymptotic-giant-branch stars is sufficiently strong that if it is slightly asymmetric, it can propel the star outside of the open cluster of its birth or significantly alter its trajectory through a globular cluster; therefore, if these stellar winds are asymmetric, one would expect a deficit of white dwarfs of all ages in open clusters and for young white dwarfs to be less radially concentrated than either their progenitors or older white dwarfs in globular clusters. This latter effect has recently been observed. Hence, detailed studies of the radial distribution of young whit…
Optical and X-ray studies of six nearby galaxies show that the probability a globular cluster will be an X-ray source is consistent with being linearly proportional to its mass. We show that this result is consistent with some recent estimates of the velocity kick distributions for isolated radio pulsars -- those which are the sum of two Maxwellians, with the slower distribution at about 100 km/sec -- so long as a large fraction of the retained binaries are in binary systems with other massive stars. We confirm that over a large sample of galaxies, metallicity is clearly a factor in determinin…
Fokker-Planck models are used to give estimates for the retention fractions for newly-born neutron stars in globular clusters as a function of kick velocity. These can be used to calculate the present day numbers of neutron stars in globular clusters and in addressing questions such as the origin of millisecond pulsars. As an example, the Population I kick velocity distribution of Lyne & Lorimer (1994) is used to estimate the retained fractions of neutron stars originating as single stars and in binary systems. For plausible initial conditions fewer than 4% of single neutron stars are retained…
(abridged) Observations of very high speeds among pulsars in the Galactic disk present a puzzle regarding neutron stars in globular clusters. The inferred characteristic speed of single pulsars in the Galaxy is $\sim 5-10$ times as large as the central escape speed from the most massive globular clusters. It is then reasonable to ask why any pulsars are seen in globular clusters, whereas, in fact, quite a large number have been detected and as many as $\sim 1000$ are thought to be present in some of the richest clusters. We use a Monte Carlo approach to generate a population of massive primord…
During the inspiral and merger of a binary black hole, gravitational radiation is emitted anisotropically due to asymmetries in the merger configuration. This anisotropic radiation leads to a gravitational wave kick, or recoil velocity, as large as ~ 4000 km/sec. We investigate the effect gravitational recoil has on the retention of intermediate mass black holes (IMBH) within Galactic globular clusters. Assuming that our current understanding of IMBH-formation is correct and yields an IMBH-seed in every globular cluster, we find a significant problem retaining low mass IMBHs (1000 $\Msun$) in …
We report here on two complementary population synthesis studies which relate directly to the formation and evolution of neutron star binaries in globular clusters. In the first, we compute the probability of retaining neutron stars in globular clusters, and quantitatively confirm the idea that the retention fraction for neutron stars born in binary systems is greatly enhanced over those born in isolated stars. However, the retention fraction may well be insufficient to explain the current population of neutron star binaries. In the second study, we follow a large population of primordial bina…
In the high density cores of globular clusters, multibody interactions are expected to be common, with the result that black holes in binaries are hardened by interactions. It was shown by Sigurdsson & Hernquist (1993) and others that 10 solar mass black holes interacting exclusively by three-body encounters do not merge in the clusters themselves, because recoil kicks the binaries out of the clusters before the binaries are tight enough to merge. Here we consider a new mechanism, involving four-body encounters. Numerical simulations by a number of authors suggest that roughly 20-50% of binary…
We investigate the dynamical formation and evolution of binaries containing neutron stars in dense globular clusters. Our numerical simulations combine a simple Monte Carlo prescription for stellar dynamics, a sophisticated binary population synthesis code, and a small-N-body integrator for computing 3-body and 4-body interactions. Our results suggest that there is no ``retention problem,'' i.e., that, under standard assumptions, globular clusters can retain enough neutron stars to produce the observed numbers of millisecond pulsars. We also identify the dominant evolutionary and dynamical cha…
Recent numerical relativistic results demonstrate that the merger of comparable-mass spinning black holes has a maximum ``recoil kick'' of up to $\sim 4000 \kms$. However the scaling of these recoil velocities with mass ratio is poorly understood. We present new runs showing that the maximum possible kick perpendicular to the orbital plane does not scale as $\simη^2$ (where $η$ is the symmetric mass ratio), as previously proposed, but is more consistent with $\simη^3$, at least for systems with low orbital precession. We discuss the effect of this dependence on galactic ejection scenarios and …
Population synthesis is used to model the number of neutron stars in globular clusters that are observed as LMXBs and millisecond PSRs. The dynamical interaction between binary and single stars in a GC are assumed to take place with a permanently replenished "background" of single stars whose density distribution keeps track with the cluster evolution as a whole and evolution of single stars. We use the hypothesis (Podsiadlowski et al) that NS forming in binary systems from components with initial masses \sim 8-12 M_\odot during the electron-capture collapse of the degenerate O-Ne-Mg core do n…
Recent developments in numerical relativity have made it possible to follow reliably the coalescence of two black holes from near the innermost stable circular orbit to final ringdown. This opens up a wide variety of exciting astrophysical applications of these simulations. Chief among these is the net kick received when two unequal mass or spinning black holes merge. The magnitude of this kick has bearing on the production and growth of supermassive black holes during the epoch of structure formation, and on the retention of black holes in stellar clusters. Here we report the first accurate n…
We explore the origin of the Galactic high latitude black hole X-ray binary XTE J1118+480, and in particular its birth location and the magnitude of the kick received by the black hole upon formation in the supernova explosion. We constrain the age of the companion to the black hole using stellar evolution calculations between 2 Gyr and 5 Gyr, making an origin in a globular cluster unlikely. We therefore argue that the system was born in the Galactic disk and the supernova propelled it in its current high latitude orbit. Given the current estimates on its distance, proper motion and radial vel…
We investigate the relationship between Low Mass X-ray Binaries (LMXBs) and globular clusters (GCs) using UKIRT observations of M31 and existing Chandra, XMM-Newton, and ROSAT catalogues. By fitting King models to these data we have estimated the structural parameters and stellar collision rates of 239 of its GCs. We show a highly significant trend between the presence of a LMXB and the stellar collision rate of a cluster. The stellar collision rate is found to be a stronger predictor of which clusters will host LMXBs than the host cluster mass. We argue that our results show that the stellar …
We present an analytical method for studying the changes of the orbital characteristics of binary systems with circular orbits due to a kick velocity imparted to the newborn neutron star during a supernova explosion (SN). Assuming a Maxwellian distribution of kick velocities we derive analytical expressions for the distribution functions of orbital separations and eccentricities immediately after the explosion, of orbital separations after circularization of the post-SN orbits, and of systemic velocities of binaries that remain bound after the explosion. These distributions of binary character…
A supermassive black hole ejected from the center of a galaxy by gravitational wave recoil carries a retinue of bound stars - a "hypercompact stellar system" (HCSS). The numbers and properties of HCSSs contain information about the merger histories of galaxies, the late evolution of binary black holes, and the distribution of gravitational-wave kicks. We relate the structural properties of HCSSs to the properties of their host galaxies, in two regimes: collisional, i.e. short nuclear relaxation times; and collisionless, i.e. long nuclear relaxtion times. HCSSs are expected to be similar in siz…
Gravitational waves from the coalescence of binary black holes carry away linear momentum, causing center of mass recoil. This "radiation rocket" effect has important implications for systems with escape speeds of order the recoil velocity. We revisit this problem using black hole perturbation theory, treating the binary as a test mass spiraling into a spinning hole. For extreme mass ratios (q = m1/m2 << 1) we compute the recoil for the slow inspiral epoch of binary coalescence very accurately; these results can be extrapolated to q ~ 0.4 with modest accuracy. Although the recoil from the fina…
In four globular clusters (GCs) a non negligible fraction of stars can be interpreted only as a very helium rich population. The evidence comes from the presence of a "blue" main sequence in $ω$ Cen and NGC 2808, and from the the very peculiar horizontal branch morphology in NGC 6441 and NGC 6388. Although a general consensus is emerging on the fact that self--enrichment is a common feature among GCs, the helium content required for these stars is Y$\simgt$0.35, and it is difficult to understand how it can be produced without any --or, for $ω$ Cen, without a considerable--associated metal enha…
In this paper, the second of a series, we study the stellar dynamical and evolutionary processes leading to the formation of compact binaries containing neutron stars (NSs) in dense globular clusters (GCs). For this study, 70 dense clusters were simulated independently, with a total stellar mass ~2x10^7Msun, exceeding the total mass of all dense GCs in our Galaxy. We find that, in order to reproduce the empirically derived formation rate of low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs), we must assume that NSs can be formed via electron-capture supernovae (ECS) with typical natal kicks smaller than in core-…
We have detected 300 X-ray sources within the half-mass radius (2.79') of the globular cluster 47 Tucanae in a deep (281 ks) Chandra exposure. We perform photometry and simple spectral fitting for our detected sources, and construct luminosity functions, X-ray color-magnitude and color-color diagrams. Eighty-seven X-ray sources show variability on timescales from hours to years. Thirty-one of the new X-ray sources are identified with chromospherically active binaries from the catalogs of Albrow et al. The radial distributions of detected sources imply roughly 70 are background sources of some …
Only a few of the dozen or so stellar-mass black holes have been observed away from the plane of the Galaxy$^1$. Those few could have been ejected from the plane as a result of a ``kick'' received during a supernova explosion, or they could be remnants of the population of massive stars formed in the early stages of evolution of the Galaxy. Determining their orbital motion should help to distinguish between these options. Here we report the transverse motion (in the plane of the sky) for the black hole X-ray nova XTE J1118+480 (refs 2-5), from which we derive a large space velocity. This X-ray…
Recent numerical simulations of binary black hole mergers show the possibility of producing very large recoil velocities (> 3000 km/s). Kicks of this magnitude should be sufficient to eject the final black hole from virtually any galactic potential. This result has been seen as a potential contradiction with observations of supermassive black holes residing in the centers of most galaxies in the local universe. Using an extremely simplified merger tree model, we show that, even in the limit of very large ejection probability, after a small number of merger generations there should still be an …
Mergers between stellar-mass black holes will be key sources of gravitational radiation for ground-based detectors. However, the rates of these events are highly uncertain, given that such systems are invisible. One formation scenario involves mergers in field binaries, where our lack of complete understanding of common envelopes and the distribution of supernova kicks has led to rate estimates that range over a factor of several hundred. A different, and highly promising, channel involves multiple encounters of binaries in globular clusters or young star clusters. However, we currently lack s…
It has been reported that there is an error in the figure in Dull et al. (1997, D97) that shows the radial M/L profile in Fokker-Planck models of M15. We discuss how this modifies the interpretation of our kinematical data. These imply the existence of a dark and compact mass component near the center of M15, either a single black hole (BH) or a collection of dark remnants that have sunk to the cluster center due to mass segregation. We previously showed that the latter interpretation is in conflict with the D97 M/L profile, which supported the BH interpretation. We repeat our analysis here wi…
Gravitational wave emission by coalescing black holes (BHs) kicks the remnant BH with a typical velocity of hundreds of km/s. This velocity is sufficiently large to remove the remnant BH from a low-mass galaxy but is below the escape velocity from the Milky Way (MW) galaxy. If central BHs were common in the galactic building blocks that merged to make the MW, then numerous BHs that were kicked out of low-mass galaxies should be freely floating in the MW halo today. We use a large statistical sample of possible merger tree histories for the MW to estimate the expected number of recoiled BH remn…
This is the first of two papers presenting a detailed examination of Fokker-Planck models for the globular cluster NGC 6397. I show that these models provide a good match to observations of the surface density profile, mass functions at three radii and the velocity dispersion profile. The constraint of requiring the best matches to the mass functions and surface density profiles to occur simultaneously defines a surface in an initial parameter space consisting of the cluster concentration, mass, and limiting radius. I discuss various techniques for locating this surface and the dependence of t…
Compact object mergers are one of the favorite models of GRBs. It has been noted that in opposition to the collapsars, compact object mergers do not necessarily take place in the host galaxies, and may travel outside of them. With the discovery of afterglows and identification of host galaxies one can measure the distribution of GRBs with respect to their host galaxies. This distribution has been calculated using different population synthesis codes, and for different galactic potentials In this paper we compare the distributions of different types of compact object binaries: double neutron st…
Determination of pulsar parallaxes and proper motions addresses fundamental astrophysical open issues. Here, the ATNF Catalog is scrutinized searching for pulsar distances and proper motions. For a sample of 212 run away pulsars (RAPs), which currently run across the Galaxy at very high speed and undergo large displacements, some gravitational-wave (GW) signals produced by such present accelerations appear to be detectable after calibration against the Advanced LIGO (LIGO II). Motivated by this insight, we address the issue of the pulsar kick at birth. We show that during the short rise fling …
In the last stages of a black hole merger, the binary can experience a recoil due to asymmetric emission of gravitational radiation. Recent numerical relativity simulations suggest that the recoil velocity can be as high as a few thousands kilometers per second for particular configurations. We consider here the effect of a worst case scenario for orbital and phase configurations on the hierarchical evolution of the massive black hole (MBH) population. The orbital configuration and spin orientation in the plane is chosen to be the one yielding the highest possible kick. Masses and spin magnitu…
Coalescing binary black holes experience an impulsive kick due to anisotropic emission of gravitational waves. We discuss the dynamical consequences of the recoil accompanying massive black hole mergers. Recoil velocities are sufficient to eject most coalescing black holes from dwarf galaxies and globular clusters, which may explain the apparent absence of massive black holes in these systems. Ejection from giant elliptical galaxies would be rare, but coalescing black holes are displaced from the center and fall back on a time scale of order the half-mass crossing time. Displacement of the bla…
We present the results from realistic N-body modelling of massive star clusters in the Magellanic Clouds. We have computed eight simulations with N ~ 10^5 particles; six of these were evolved for at least a Hubble time. The aim of this modelling is to examine the possibility of large-scale core expansion in massive star clusters and search for a viable dynamical origin for the radius-age trend observed for such objects in the Magellanic Clouds. We identify two physical processes which can lead to significant and prolonged cluster core expansion: mass-loss due to rapid stellar evolution in a pr…
We model the dynamical evolution of primordial black holes (BHs) in dense star clusters using a simplified treatment of stellar dynamics in which the BHs are assumed to remain concentrated in an inner core, completely decoupled from the background stars. Dynamical interactions involving BH binaries are computed exactly and are generated according to a Monte Carlo prescription. Recoil and ejections lead to complete evaporation of the BH core on a timescale ~10^9 yr for typical globular cluster parameters. Orbital decay driven by gravitational radiation can make binaries merge and, in some cases…
