Electromagnetic counterparts to massive black-hole mergers.

Content Provider	Europe PMC
Author	Bogdanović, Tamara Miller, M. Coleman Blecha, Laura
Abstract	The next two decades are expected to open the door to the first coincident detections of electromagnetic (EM) and gravitational-wave (GW) signatures associated with massive black-hole (MBH) binaries heading for coalescence. These detections will launch a new era of multimessenger astrophysics by expanding this growing field to the low-frequency GW regime and will provide an unprecedented understanding of the evolution of MBHs and galaxies. They will also constitute fundamentally new probes of cosmology and would enable unique tests of gravity. The aim of this Living Review is to provide an introduction to this research topic by presenting a summary of key findings, physical processes and ideas pertaining to EM counterparts to MBH mergers as they are known at the time of this writing. We review current observational evidence for close MBH binaries, discuss relevant physical processes and timescales, and summarize the possible EM counterparts to GWs in the precursor, coalescence, and afterglow stages of a MBH merger. We also describe open questions and discuss future prospects in this dynamic and quick-paced research area.
Related Links	https://europepmc.org/backend/ptpmcrender.fcgi?accid=PMC9232481&blobtype=pdf
ISSN	23673613
Journal	Living Reviews in Relativity [Living Rev Relativ]
Volume Number	25
DOI	10.1007/s41114-022-00037-8
PubMed Central reference number	PMC9232481
Issue Number	1
PubMed reference number	35767150
e-ISSN	14338351
Language	English
Publisher	Springer International Publishing
Publisher Date	2022-06-24
Publisher Place	Gewerbestrasse 11, Cham, Ch 6330, Switzerland
Access Restriction	Open
Rights License	Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. © The Author(s) 2022
Subject Keyword	Accretion, accretion disks Black-hole physics Gravitational waves Galaxies: nuclei Radiation mechanisms: general Quasars: supermassive black holes
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Physics and Astronomy