Black hole binary mergers

Abstract

I overview the current understanding of the evolution of massive black hole (MBH) binaries in the center of the host stellar system. One of the main questions is whether the stellar dynamical effect can make the MBH binary hard enough that they can merge through gravitational wave radiation. So far, theories and numerical simulations suggested otherwize, since the hardening timescale becomes very long once "loss cone" is depleted. I'll present the result of recent simulations on this hardening timescale, and discuss its implication on the formation history of massive black holes.