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Binary black hole mergers: large kicks for generic spin orientations

Wolfgang Tichy·Pedro Marronetti
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Abstract

We present results from several simulations of equal mass black holes with spin. The spin magnitudes are $S/m^2=0.8$ in all cases, but we vary the spin orientations arbitrarily, in and outside the orbital plane. We find that in all but one case the final merged black hole acquires a kick of more than 1000 km/s, indicating that kicks of this magnitude are likely to be generic and should be expected for mergers with general spin orientations. The maximum kick velocity we find is 2500 km/s and occurs for initial spins which are anti-aligned in the initial orbital plane.

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Wolfgang Tichy, Pedro Marronetti. 2007-03-13. Binary black hole mergers: large kicks for generic spin orientations. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.76.061502

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