Inspiral of double black holes in gaseous nuclear disks

We study the inspiral of double black holes orbiting inside a massive rotationally supported gaseous disk with masses in the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) window of detectability. Using high-resolution SPH simulations, we follow the black hole dynamics in the early phase when gas-dynamical friction acts on the black holes individually, and continue our simulation until they form a close binary. We find that in the early sinking the black holes lose memory of their initial orbital eccentricity, if they co-rotate with the gaseous disk. As a consequence the massive black holes form a binary with very low eccentricity. During the inspiral, gravitational capture of gas by the black holes occurs mainly when they move on circular orbits and may ignite AGN activity: eccentric orbits imply instead high relative velocities and weak gravitational focusing. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.