Never two without three

Binary black holes stand as one of the principal sources of gravitational waves in the Universe. Emitting ripples in the fabric of spacetime, black holes gradually spiral closer, eventually culminating in a merger. Binary black hole mergers stand out as the most energetic events in the Universe, observable from Earth with laser detectors known as interferometers. The ideal environment for the formation of binary black hole mergers is within star clusters – crowded neighborhoods of stars held together by gravity, where dynamical interactions between celestial bodies occur. In my research, I explore the mechanisms through which these interactions between stars and black holes lead to the formation of binary black hole mergers, with a particular focus on binary-single encounters.

Here below, the complete video of a binary-single encounter between black holes: