Massive binary star mergers in galactic nuclei: Implications for blue stragglers, binary S-stars, and gravitational waves

Abstract

Galactic nuclei are often found to contain young stellar populations and, in most cases, a central supermassive black hole (SMBH). Most known massive stars are found in binaries or higher multiplicity systems, and in a galactic nucleus the gravitational interaction with the SMBH can affect their long-term evolution. In this paper, we study the orbital evolution of stellar binaries near SMBHs using high precision N-body simulations, and including tidal forces and post-Newtonian corrections to the motion. We focus on the Lidov–Kozai (LK) effect induced by the SMBH on massive star binaries. We investigate how the properties of the merging binaries change with varying the SMBH mass, the slope of the initial mass function, the distributions of the binary orbital parameters, and the efficiency in energy dissipation in dissipative tides. We find that the fraction of merging massive binary stars is in the range ∼4–15 per cent regardless of the details of the initial distributions of masses and orbital elements. For a Milky Way-like nucleus, we find a typical rate of binary mergers ≈ 1.4 × 10−7 yr−1. The merger products of massive binaries can be rejuvenated blue-straggler stars, more massive than each of their original progenitors, and G2-like objects. Binary systems that survive the LK cycles can be source of X-rays and gravitational waves, observable with present and upcoming instruments.