Strong-field tidal distortions of rotating black holes: Formalism and results for circular, equatorial orbits
Tidal coupling between members of a compact binary system can have an interesting and important influence on that binary’s dynamical inspiral. Tidal coupling also distorts the binary’s members, changing them (at lowest order) from spheres to ellipsoids. At least in the limit of fluid bodies and Newt...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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American Physical Society
2014
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/92426 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6211-1388 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2492-6505 |
| _version_ | 1826200785627643904 |
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| author | O'Sullivan, Stephen Gerard Hughes, Scott A |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics O'Sullivan, Stephen Gerard Hughes, Scott A |
| author_sort | O'Sullivan, Stephen Gerard |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Tidal coupling between members of a compact binary system can have an interesting and important influence on that binary’s dynamical inspiral. Tidal coupling also distorts the binary’s members, changing them (at lowest order) from spheres to ellipsoids. At least in the limit of fluid bodies and Newtonian gravity, there are simple connections between the geometry of the distorted ellipsoid and the impact of tides on the orbit’s evolution. In this paper, we develop tools for investigating tidal distortions of rapidly rotating black holes using techniques that are good for strong-field, fast-motion binary orbits. We use black hole perturbation theory, so our results assume extreme mass ratios. We develop tools to compute the distortion to a black hole’s curvature for any spin parameter, and for tidal fields arising from any bound orbit, in the frequency domain. We also develop tools to visualize the horizon’s distortion for black hole spin a/M ≤ √3/2 (leaving the more complicated a/M > √3/2 case to a future analysis). We then study how a Kerr black hole’s event horizon is distorted by a small body in a circular, equatorial orbit. We find that the connection between the geometry of tidal distortion and the orbit’s evolution is not as simple as in the Newtonian limit. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T11:41:43Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/92426 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T11:41:43Z |
| publishDate | 2014 |
| publisher | American Physical Society |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/924262022-09-27T21:16:14Z Strong-field tidal distortions of rotating black holes: Formalism and results for circular, equatorial orbits O'Sullivan, Stephen Gerard Hughes, Scott A Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research O'Sullivan, Stephen Gerard Hughes, Scott A. Tidal coupling between members of a compact binary system can have an interesting and important influence on that binary’s dynamical inspiral. Tidal coupling also distorts the binary’s members, changing them (at lowest order) from spheres to ellipsoids. At least in the limit of fluid bodies and Newtonian gravity, there are simple connections between the geometry of the distorted ellipsoid and the impact of tides on the orbit’s evolution. In this paper, we develop tools for investigating tidal distortions of rapidly rotating black holes using techniques that are good for strong-field, fast-motion binary orbits. We use black hole perturbation theory, so our results assume extreme mass ratios. We develop tools to compute the distortion to a black hole’s curvature for any spin parameter, and for tidal fields arising from any bound orbit, in the frequency domain. We also develop tools to visualize the horizon’s distortion for black hole spin a/M ≤ √3/2 (leaving the more complicated a/M > √3/2 case to a future analysis). We then study how a Kerr black hole’s event horizon is distorted by a small body in a circular, equatorial orbit. We find that the connection between the geometry of tidal distortion and the orbit’s evolution is not as simple as in the Newtonian limit. National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant PHY-1068720) John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics 2014-12-22T14:40:43Z 2014-12-22T14:40:43Z 2014-12 2014-07 2014-12-15T23:00:02Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1550-7998 1550-2368 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/92426 O'Sullivan, Stephen, and Scott A. Hughes. "Strong-field tidal distortions of rotating black holes: Formalism and results for circular, equatorial orbits." Phys. Rev. D 90, 124039 (December 2014). © 2014 American Physical Society https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6211-1388 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2492-6505 en http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.90.124039 Physical Review D Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. American Physical Society application/pdf American Physical Society American Physical Society |
| spellingShingle | O'Sullivan, Stephen Gerard Hughes, Scott A Strong-field tidal distortions of rotating black holes: Formalism and results for circular, equatorial orbits |
| title | Strong-field tidal distortions of rotating black holes: Formalism and results for circular, equatorial orbits |
| title_full | Strong-field tidal distortions of rotating black holes: Formalism and results for circular, equatorial orbits |
| title_fullStr | Strong-field tidal distortions of rotating black holes: Formalism and results for circular, equatorial orbits |
| title_full_unstemmed | Strong-field tidal distortions of rotating black holes: Formalism and results for circular, equatorial orbits |
| title_short | Strong-field tidal distortions of rotating black holes: Formalism and results for circular, equatorial orbits |
| title_sort | strong field tidal distortions of rotating black holes formalism and results for circular equatorial orbits |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/92426 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6211-1388 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2492-6505 |
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