Supernovae in massive binaries and compact object mergers near supermassive black holes

Understand

Nuclear star clusters that surround supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in galactic nuclei are among the densest systems in the Universe, harbouring millions of stars and compact objects (COs).

• Within a few parsecs from the SMBH, stars can form binaries.
• In this paper, we model the supernova (SN) process of massive binaries that are born in proximity of the SMBH and that produce CO binaries.
• These binaries can later merge via emission of gravitational waves as a consequence of the Lidov-Kozai mechanism.