Gas-induced gravitational-wave dephasing and accretion periodicities of live post-Newtonian massive black hole binaries: warm disk
Abstract
We perform 3D hydrodynamical simulations of an equal-mass quasi-circular live 106 M⊙ massive black hole binary (MBHB) embedded in a prograde, locally isothermal circumbinary disk (CBD) with $0.1$ aspect ratio. The binary evolves under the effect of gaseous torques and $2.5$ post-Newtonian dynamics. This approach allows us to track the influence of the CBD on a gravitational-wave (GW) driven MBHB inspiral all the way down to merger from $53$ Schwarzschild radii (rs) over $1.5$ years. Comparing the GW inspiral rate with the viscous inflow, we find the binary to decouple from the CBD just ≈2 days before merger. We measure gas torques (gravitational and accretion) with and without concurrent GW emission, finding that their sums agree to within ≲5% down to 25 rs. We then measure a gas-induced phase-shift in the GW signal of ≈9.0×10−4 rad that accumulates over a year until 40 rs and saturates afterward, which should be LISA-detectable at redshift z≲0.2. We further characterize the mass accretion rate modulations. We recover the periodicity associated with the ``lump" at the inner cavity edge. The periodicities at the binary orbital period and at half of it are shifted to lower frequencies. We measure the former, due to relativistic apsidal precession, in an inspiraling binary for the first time, and newly identify the latter as due to the precession of the eccentric cavity. Our results have implications for multi-messenger astronomy, since observation of accretion rate modulation by LSST/Roman surveys and phase-shift by LISA will provide crucial information on the complex environment surrounding MBHBs.
Related
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BibTeX
@misc{garg2026gasinduced,
title = {{Gas-induced gravitational-wave dephasing and accretion periodicities of live post-Newtonian massive black hole binaries: warm disk}},
author = {Mudit Garg and Alessia Franchini and Alessandro Lupi},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2606.20787},
eprint = {2606.20787},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.20787},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Gas-induced gravitational-wave dephasing and accretion periodicities of live post-Newtonian massive black hole binaries: warm disk
AU - Mudit Garg
AU - Alessia Franchini
AU - Alessandro Lupi
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/30
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2606.20787
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.20787
AB - We perform 3D hydrodynamical simulations of an equal-mass quasi-circular live 10^6 M_⊙ massive black hole binary (MBHB) embedded in a prograde, locally isothermal circumbinary disk (CBD) with $0.1$ aspect ratio. The binary evolves under the effect of gaseous torques and $2.5$ post-Newtonian dynamics. This approach allows us to track the influence of the CBD on a gravitational-wave (GW) driven MBHB inspiral all the way down to merger from $53$ Schwarzschild radii (r_s) over $1.5$ years. Comparing the GW inspiral rate with the viscous inflow, we find the binary to decouple from the CBD just ≈2 days before merger. We measure gas torques (gravitational and accretion) with and without concurrent GW emission, finding that their sums agree to within ≲5% down to 25 r_s. We then measure a gas-induced phase-shift in the GW signal of ≈9.0×10^−4 rad that accumulates over a year until 40 r_s and saturates afterward, which should be LISA-detectable at redshift z≲0.2. We further characterize the mass accretion rate modulations. We recover the periodicity associated with the ``lump" at the inner cavity edge. The periodicities at the binary orbital period and at half of it are shifted to lower frequencies. We measure the former, due to relativistic apsidal precession, in an inspiraling binary for the first time, and newly identify the latter as due to the precession of the eccentric cavity. Our results have implications for multi-messenger astronomy, since observation of accretion rate modulation by LSST/Roman surveys and phase-shift by LISA will provide crucial information on the complex environment surrounding MBHBs.
ER -