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Abstract Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) are thought to be located at the centers of most galactic nuclei. When galaxies merge, they form SMBH binary (SMBHB) systems, and these central SMBHs will also merge at later times, producing gravitational waves. Because galaxy mergers are likely gas-rich environments, SMBHBs are also potential sources of electromagnetic (EM) radiation. The EM signatures depend on gas dynamics, orbital dynamics, and radiation processes. The gas dynamics are governed by general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) in a time-dependent spacetime. Numerically solving the MHD equations for a time-dependent binary spacetime is computationally expensive. Therefore, it is challenging to conduct a full exploration of the parameter space of these systems and the resulting EM signatures. We have developed an analytical accretion-disk model for the mini-disks of an SMBHB system and produced images and light curves using a general-relativistic ray-tracing code and a superimposed harmonic binary BH metric. This analytical model greatly reduces the time and computational resources needed to explore these systems, while incorporating some key information from simulations. We present a parameter-space exploration of the SMBHB system, in which we study the dependence of the EM signatures on the spins of the BHs, the mass ratio, the accretion rate, the viewing angle, and the initial binary separation. Additionally, we study how the commonly used fast-light approximation affects the EM signatures and evaluate its validity in general-relativistic MHD simulations. 

Abstract While supermassive binary black holes (SMBBHs) inspiral toward merger they may also accrete matter from a surrounding disk. To study the dynamics of this system requires simultaneously describing the evolving spacetime and the magnetized plasma. We present the first relativistic calculation simulating two equal-mass, nonspinning black holes as they inspiral from a 20M(G=c= 1) initial separation almost to merger. Our results imply important observational consequences: for instance, the accretion rate $\dot{M}$onto the black holes first decreases and then plateaus, dropping by only a factor of ∼3 despite the rapid inspiral. An estimated bolometric light curve follows the same profile, suggesting some merging SMBBHs may be significantly luminous past the predicted circumbinary disk decoupling. The minidisks are nonstandard: Reynolds, not Maxwell, stresses dominate, and they oscillate between two states. In one part of the cycle, “sloshing” streams transfer mass between minidisks, carrying kinetic energy at a rate sometimes as high as the peak minidisk bolometric luminosity. We also discover that episodic accretion drives time-varying minidisk tilts. These complex dynamics all contribute to unique cyclical behavior in the light curves of late-time inspiraling SMBBHs. The poloidal magnetic flux on the black holes is roughly constant at a dimensionless levelϕ∼ 2–3, but doubles just before merger; for significant black hole spin, this flux predicts powerful jets with variability driven by binary dynamics, another potentially unique electromagnetic signature. This simulation is the first to employ our multipatch infrastructure PatchworkMHD, decreasing the computational expense to ∼3% of conventional single-grid methods’ cost.