Rapid and Bright Stellar-mass Binary Black Hole Mergers in Active Galactic Nuclei

Understand

The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, LIGO, found direct evidence for double black hole binaries emitting gravitational waves.

• Galactic nuclei are expected to harbor the densest population of stellar-mass black holes.
• A significant fraction ($\sim30\%$) of these black holes can reside in binaries.
• We examine the fate of the black hole binaries in active galactic nuclei, which get trapped in the inner region of the accretion disk around the central supermassive black hole.