Relativistic dynamics and extreme mass ratio inspirals

Living Reviews in Relativity
Pau Amaro-Seoane

Abstract

It is now well-established that a dark, compact object, very likely a massive black hole (MBH) of around four million solar masses is lurking at the centre of the Milky Way. While a consensus is emerging about the origin and growth of supermassive black holes (with masses larger than a billion solar masses), MBHs with smaller masses, such as the one in our galactic centre, remain understudied and enigmatic. The key to understanding these holes-how some of them grow by orders of magnitude in mass-lies in understanding the dynamics of the stars in the galactic neighbourhood. Stars interact with the central MBH primarily through their gradual inspiral due to the emission of gravitational radiation. Also stars produce gases which will subsequently be accreted by the MBH through collisions and disruptions brought about by the strong central tidal field. Such processes can contribute significantly to the mass of the MBH and progress in understanding them requires theoretical work in preparation for future gravitational radiation millihertz missions and X-ray observatories. In particular, a unique probe of these regions is the gravitational radiation that is emitted by some compact stars very close to the black holes and which could b...Continue Reading

References

Dec 15, 1992·Physical Review. D·L S Finn
Sep 15, 1994·Physical Review. D·D Kennefick, E Poisson
Dec 10, 1999·The Astrophysical Journal· Portegies Zwart SF, S L McMillan
Sep 16, 2000·Physical Review Letters·J P Ostriker
Jul 21, 2001·Science·D MerrittC L Joseph
Apr 4, 1970·Nature·J M Bardeen

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Citations

Apr 26, 2019·Nature·M Coleman Miller, Nicolás Yunes

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
X-ray
eLISA
LISA
chip

Software Mentioned

NBODY6
Bigg
simeq
Aarseth
EMRI
varDelta
Bigl
Bigg langle
varLambda
Bigg rangle

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