Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Date of Degree

9-2025

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Program

Astrophysics

Advisor

Mordecai-Mark Mac Low

Advisor

Aleksandra Kuznetsova

Committee Members

Jillian Bellovary

Subject Categories

Other Astrophysics and Astronomy

Keywords

black holes, binary, AGN

Abstract

Active galactic nucleus disks have been proposed as a possibly dominant location of the mergers of binary black holes detected by gravitational wave observatories. The nonlinear interactions between stellar mass black holes and disk gas determine when binaries will form from single objects on nearby orbits. Prior work has used smoothed particle hydrodynamics models in an isothermal disk to study this problem. However, the local equation of state near the midplane of an optically thick accretion disk is adiabatic rather than isothermal, even if the radiative equilibrium temperature is azimuthally isothermal. Therefore, we investigate the use of an adiabatic equation of state in the simulation of binary black hole formation. We use FARGO3D, a grid based, shearing coordinate system, hydrodynamical simulation code. We present a comparison of our preliminary results to prior work, with the goal of understanding whether and how efficiently binary formation can occur in this environment

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