{
  "id": "2008.01091",
  "version": "v1",
  "published": "2020-08-03T18:00:02.000Z",
  "updated": "2020-08-03T18:00:02.000Z",
  "title": "Drifting through the medium: kicks and self-propulsion of binaries within accretion disks and other environments",
  "authors": [
    "Vitor Cardoso",
    "Caio F. B. Macedo"
  ],
  "comment": "10 pages, 11 figures. Paper accepted for publication in MNRAS",
  "categories": [
    "astro-ph.HE",
    "gr-qc",
    "physics.flu-dyn"
  ],
  "abstract": "Compact binaries are within the reach of gravitational and electromagnetic wave detectors, and are important for our understanding of astrophysical environments and the composition of compact objects. There is a vast body of work devoted to the evolution of such binaries in background media, such as in common-envelope evolution, accretion disks and dark matter mini-spikes. Here, we explore further gravitationally-bound binaries evolving within an environment. We show that dissipative effects such as gravitational drag and accretion impart a momentum to the center of mass of asymmetric binaries. We numerically evolve the binaries in a Newtonian setup and show that, depending on the medium density, the center of mass can accelerate to high speeds -- in some cases $300\\, {\\rm km/s}$ or more -- during inspiral, with potentially observable signatures. Our numerical results are fully consistent with an \\textit{analytical} result for the CM evolution at first order in the medium density.",
  "revisions": [
    {
      "version": "v1",
      "updated": "2020-08-03T18:00:02.000Z"
    }
  ],
  "analyses": {
    "keywords": [
      "accretion disks",
      "environment",
      "self-propulsion",
      "medium density",
      "electromagnetic wave detectors"
    ],
    "note": {
      "typesetting": "TeX",
      "pages": 10,
      "language": "en",
      "license": "arXiv",
      "status": "editable"
    }
  }
}