arXiv subjects

Dany Atallah

Publications and source records attributed to Dany Atallah.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

A Million Three-body Binaries Caught by Gaia

Gaia observations have revealed over a million stellar binary candidates within ~1 kpc of the Sun, predominantly characterized by orbital separations >10^3 AU and eccentricities >0.7. The prevalence of such wide, eccentric binaries has proven challenging to explain through canonical binary formation channels. However, recent advances in our understanding of three-body binary formation (3BBF) -- new binary assembly by the gravitational scattering of three unbound bodies (3UB) -- have shown that 3BBF in star clusters can efficiently generate wide, highly eccentric binaries. We further explore this possibility by constructing a semi-analytic model of the Galactic binary population in the solar neighborhood, originating from 3BBF in star clusters and subsequently migrating to the solar neighborhood within a Hubble time. The model relies on 3BBF scattering experiments to determine how the 3BBF rate and resulting binary properties scale with local stellar density, velocity dispersion, and physically-motivated limits to 3UB encounters within a clusters' tidal field. The Galactic star cluster population is modeled by incorporating up-to-date prescriptions for the Galaxy's star formation history as well as the birth properties and internal evolution of its star clusters. Finally, we account for binary disruption induced by perturbations from stellar interactions before cluster dissolution and the subsequent changes and disruption of binary orbital elements induced by dynamical interactions in the Galactic field. Our model closely reproduces the total number of Gaia's wide binaries and the separation and eccentricity distributions, suggesting that 3BBF may be an important formation channel for these enigmatic systems.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2024

Large Gravitational Wave Phase Shifts from Strong 3-body Interactions in Dense Stellar Clusters

The phase evolution of gravitational waves (GWs) can be modulated by the astrophysical environment surrounding the source, which provides a probe for the origin of individual binary black holes (BBHs) using GWs alone. We here study the evolving phase of the GW waveform derived from a large set of simulations of BBH mergers forming in dense stellar clusters through binary-single interactions. We uncover that a well-defined fraction of the assembled eccentric GW sources will have a notable GW phase shift induced by the remaining third object. The magnitude of the GW phase shift often exceeds conservative analytical estimates due to strong 3-body interactions, which occasionally results in GW sources with clearly shifted and perturbed GW waveforms. This opens up promising opportunities for current and future GW detectors, as observing such a phase shift can identify the formation environment of a BBH, as well as help to characterise the local properties of its surrounding environment.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2024

On Binary Formation from Three Initially Unbound Bodies

We explore three-body binary formation (3BBF), the formation of a bound system via gravitational scattering of three initially unbound bodies (3UB), using direct numerical integrations. For the first time, we consider systems with unequal masses, as well as finite-size and post-Newtonian effects. Our analytically derived encounter rates and numerical scattering results reproduce the 3BBF rate predicted by Goodman \& Hut (1993) for hard binaries in dense star clusters. We find that 3BBF occurs overwhelmingly through nonresonant encounters and that the two most massive bodies are never the most likely to bind. Instead, 3BBF favors pairing the two least massive bodies (for wide binaries) or the most plus least massive bodies (for hard binaries). 3BBF overwhelmingly favors wide binary formation with super-thermal eccentricities, perhaps helping to explain the eccentric wide binaries observed by Gaia. Hard binary formation is far rarer, but with a thermal eccentricity distribution. The semimajor axis distribution scales cumulatively as $a^3$ for hard and slightly wider binaries. Though mergers are rare between black holes when including relativistic effects, direct collisions occur frequently between main-sequence stars -- more often than hard 3BBF. Yet, these collisions do not significantly suppress hard 3BBF at the low velocity dispersions typical of open or globular clusters. Energy dissipation through gravitational radiation leads to a small probability of a bound, hierarchical triple system forming directly from 3UB.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2023

Growing Black Holes through Successive Mergers in Galactic Nuclei: I. Methods and First Results

We present a novel, few-body computational framework designed to shed light on the likelihood of forming intermediate-mass (IM) and supermassive (SM) black holes (BHs) in nuclear star clusters (NSCs) through successive BH mergers, initiated with a single BH seed. Using observationally motivated NSC profiles, we find that the probability of a ${\sim}100 \, M_\odot$ BH to grow beyond ${\sim}1000 \, M_\odot$ through successive mergers ranges from ${\sim}0.1\%$ in low-density, low-mass clusters to nearly $90\%$ in high-mass, high-density clusters. However, in the most massive NSCs, the growth timescale can be very long ($\gtrsim 1\,$Gyr); vice versa, while growth is least likely in less massive NSCs, it is faster there, requiring as little as ${\sim}0.1\,$Gyr. The increased gravitational focusing in systems with lower velocity dispersions is the primary contributor to this behavior. We find that there is a simple "7-strikes-and-you're-in" rule governing the growth of BHs: our results suggest that if the seed survives 7 to 10 successive mergers without being ejected (primarily through gravitational wave recoil kicks), the growing BH will most likely remain in the cluster and will then undergo runaway, continuous growth all the way to the formation of an SMBH (under the simplifying assumption adopted here of a fixed background NSC). Furthermore, we find that rapid mergers enforce a dynamically-mediated "mass gap" between about ${50-300 \, M_\odot}$ in an NSC.

astro-ph.GA↗