Supermassive recoil velocities for binary black-hole mergers with antialigned spins.
Recent calculations of the recoil velocity in binary black-hole mergers have found the kick velocity to be of the order of a few hundred km/s in the case of nonspinning binaries and about 500 km/s in the case of spinning configurations, and have lead to predictions of a maximum kick of up to 1300 km/s. We test these predictions and demonstrate that kick velocities of at least 2500 km/s are possible for equal-mass binaries with antialigned spins in the orbital plane. Kicks of that magnitude are likely to have significant repercussions for models of black-hole formation, the population of intergalactic black holes, and the structure of host galaxies.
Theoretical Physics Institute, University of Jena, 07743 Jena, Germany.
José A
JA
González
Mark
M
Hannam
Ulrich
U
Sperhake
Bernd
B
Brügmann
Sascha
S
Husa