Quanta: it may take 3 BHs to make a pair

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notFritzArgelander
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Quanta: it may take 3 BHs to make a pair

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Post by notFritzArgelander »


BH binary mergers are happening at a higher rate than expected by LIGO/VIRGO observations. A third BH might help explain the frequency of events.

https://www.quantamagazine.org/to-make- ... UjUitoYytk
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Re: Quanta: it may take 3 BHs to make a pair

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Post by helicon »


In the past few years, another idea has appeared. Under the right conditions, a third object can trigger a process that brings a pair of objects closer together. This three-body effect provides a way for far-apart massive stars to first collapse into black holes, and then draw close enough to collide. And because massive stars are often in triple systems, researchers say it’s important to take this three-body effect into account.
So three bodies are better than two. It seems a third BH is necessary to start the collision process. However, the objects cannot be too close together or otherwise they would have collided in an earlier phase of the stellar cycle.
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