Black Hole Mergers in Galactic Nuclei Induced by the Eccentric Kozai-Lidov Effect

Abstract

Nuclear star clusters around massive black holes are expected to be abundant in stellar mass black holes and black hole binaries. These binaries form a hierarchical triple system with the massive black hole at the center. Gravitational perturbations from the massive black hole can cause high eccentricity excitation. During this process, the eccentricity may approach unity, and the pericenter distance may become sufficiently small that gravitational wave emission drives the binary to merge. In this paper, we consider a simple proof of concept and explore the effect of the eccentric Kozai-Lidov mechanism for unequal mass binaries. We perform a set of Monte Carlo simulations on BH-BH binaries in galactic nuclei with quadrupole and octupole-level secular perturbations, general relativistic precession, and gravitational wave emission. For a nominal number of steady-state BH-BH binaries, our model gives a total merger rate $\sim 1 - 3$$Gpc^{-3} yr^{-1}$, depending on the assumed density profile. Thus, our model potentially competes with other dynamical mechanisms, such as the dynamical formations and mergers of BH binaries in globular clusters or dense nuclear clusters without a massive black hole. We provide predictions for the distributions of these LIGO sources in galactic nuclei.