Galaxy formation and evolution

Abstract:

We present a multi-wavelength catalog in the Subaru/XMM-Newton Deep Field (SXDF) as part of the Spitzer Large Area Survey with Hyper-Suprime-Cam (SPLASH). We include the newly acquired optical data from the Hyper-Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program, accompanied by IRAC coverage from the SPLASH survey. All available optical and near-infrared data is homogenized and resampled on a common astrometric reference frame. Source detection is done using a multi-wavelength detection image including the u-band to recover the bluest objects. We measure multi-wavelength photometry and compute photometric redshifts as well as physical properties for ~1.17 million objects over ~4.2 deg2, with ~800,000 objects in the 2.4 deg2 HSC-Ultra-Deep coverage. Using the available spectroscopic redshifts from various surveys over the range of 0 < z < 6, we verify the performance of the photometric redshifts and we find a normalized median absolute deviation of 0.023 and outlier fraction of 3.2%. The SPLASH-SXDF catalog is a valuable, publicly available resource, perfectly suited for studying galaxies in the early universe and tracing their evolution through cosmic time.

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.