The Effect of Gravitational-wave Recoil on the Demography of Massive Black Holes

The coalescence of massive black hole (MBH) binaries following galaxy mergers is one of the main sources of low-frequency gravitational radiation. A higher-order relativistic phenomenon, the recoil as a result of the non-zero net linear momentum carried away by gravitational waves, may have interesting consequences for the demography of MBHs at the centers of galaxies. We study the dynamics of recoiling MBHs and its observational consequences. The “gravitational rocket” may: i) deplete MBHs from latetype spirals, dwarf galaxies, and stellar clusters; ii) produce off-nuclear quasars, including unusual radio morphologies during the recoil of a radio-loud source; and iii) give rise to a population of interstellar and intergalactic MBHs. Subject headings: black hole physics – cosmology: theory – galaxies: nuclei – stellar dynamics