@misc{128306,
  keywords = {Astrophysical Phenomena},
  author = {Bao-Minh Hoang and Smadar Naoz and Bence Kocsis and Frederic A. Rasio and Fani Dosopoulou},
  title = {Black Hole Mergers in Galactic Nuclei Induced by the Eccentric Kozai-Lidov Effect},
  abstract = { Nuclear star clusters around a central massive black hole (MBH) are expected to be abundant in stellar black hole (BH) remnants and BH-BH binaries. These binaries form a hierarchical triple system with the central MBH, and gravitational perturbations from the MBH can cause high-eccentricity excitation in the BH-BH binary orbit. During this process, the eccentricity may approach unity, and the pericenter distance may become sufficiently small so that gravitational-wave emission drives the BH-BH binary to merge. In this work, we construct asimple proof-of-concept model for this process, and specifically, we study the eccentric Kozai-Lidov mechanism in unequal-mass, soft BH-BHbinaries. Our model is based on a set of Monte Carlo simulations for BH-BH binaries in galactic nuclei, taking into account quadrupole- and octupole-level secular perturbations, general relativistic precession,and gravitational-wave emission. For a typical steady-state number of BH-BH binaries, our model predicts a total merger rate of ̃1-3 {Gpc}<sup>-3</sup> {yr} <sup>-1</sup>, depending on the assumed density profile in the nucleus. Thus, our mechanism could potentially compete with other dynamical formation processes for merging BH-BH binaries,such as the interactions of stellar BHs in globular clusters or in nuclear star clusters without an MBH. },
  year = {2018},
  journal = {The Astrophysical Journal},
  volume = {856},
  month = {04/2018},
  url = {https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/$\#$abs/2018ApJ...856..140H},
  language = {eng},
}