Relativistic Aspects of Accreting Supermassive Black Hole Binaries in Their Natural Habitat: A Review

Abstract

In this review a summary is given on recent theoretical work, on understanding accreting supermassive black hole binaries in the gravitational wave (GW)-driven regime. A particular focus is given to theoretical predictions of properties of disks and jets in these systems during the gravitational wave driven phase. Since a previous review by Schnittman 2013, which focussed on Newtonian aspects of the problem, various relativistic aspects have been studied. In this review we provide an update on these relativistic aspects. Further, a perspective is given on recent observational developments that have seen a surge in the number of proposed supermassive black hole binary candidates. The prospect of bringing theoretical and observational efforts closer together makes this an exciting field of research for years to come.

Keywords

• GRMHD
• numerical relativity
• relativistic astrophysics
• jets
• high energy astrophysics