Dynamical evolution timescales for the triple supermassive black hole system in NGC 6240
Berczik P. Sobolenko M. Ishchenko M.
1 July 2024EDP Sciences
Astronomy and Astrophysics
2024#687
Aims. Based on the available observational data from the literature, we analysed the dynamics of the NGC 6240 galaxy central supermassive black hole (SMBH) system. Methods. For the dynamical modelling of this triple SBMH system, we used the massively parallel and GPU accelerated ϕ-GPU direct summation N-body code. Following a long-timescale modelling of the triple system, we carried out a very detailed time output analysis of the von Zeipel–Lidov–Kozai (ZLK) oscillations for the black holes. Results. According to our Newtonian simulation results, for all models and randomisations, the bound system from S1+S2 components formed at ≈3.6 Myr. The formation of the bound hierarchical triple system S+N occurred at ≈18 Myr. Over the course of these Newtonian simulations of the evolution of the triple SMBH system and the surrounding environment in NGC 6240, ZLK oscillations were detected (in most cases) for the binary components. The inclination angle between the orbital angular momentum of binary components aptly coincides with the theoretical calculations of the ZLK mechanism. Conclusions. In our set of randomised 15 Newtonian N-body dynamical galaxy models in 13 systems, we were able to detect a ZLK mechanism. In contrast, our extra few-body post-Newtonian runs (for one randomisation case) show it is only for the large inner binary initial eccentricity (in our case &0.9) that we are able to observe the possibility of the inner binary merging, due to the post-Newtonian energy radiation effects. For the lower eccentricity cases, the test runs show no sign of possible merging or any ZLK oscillations in the system.
black hole physics , galaxies: individual: NGC 6240 , galaxies: interactions , galaxies: kinematics and dynamics , galaxies: nuclei , methods: numerical
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Main Astronomical Observatory, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 27 Akademika Zabolotnoho St, Kyiv, 03143, Ukraine
Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Centre Polish Academy of Sciences, ul. Bartycka 18, Warsaw, 00-716, Poland
Konkoly Observatory, Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences, HUN-REN CSFK, MTA Centre of Excellence, Konkoly Thege Miklós út 15-17, Budapest, 1121, Hungary
Fesenkov Astrophysical Institute, Observatory 23, Almaty, 050020, Kazakhstan
Main Astronomical Observatory
Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Centre Polish Academy of Sciences
Konkoly Observatory
Fesenkov Astrophysical Institute
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