The Evolution of Accreting Binaries: From Brown Dwarfs to Supermassive Black Holes

Abstract Circumbinary accretion occurs throughout the universe, from the formation of stars and planets to the aftermath of major galactic mergers. We present an extensive investigation of circumbinary accretion disks, studying circular binaries with mass ratios (q ≡ M 2 / M 1) from 0. 01 to 1 and at each mass ratio probing the effects of disk thickness and viscosity. We study disks with aspect ratios H / r ∈ 0. 1, 0. 05, 0. 03 and vary both the magnitude and spatial dependence of viscosity. Although thin accretion disks have previously been found to promote rapid inspirals of equal-mass binaries, we find that gravitational torques become weaker at lower mass ratios and most binaries with 0. 01 ≤ q ≤ 0. 04 outspiral, which may delay the coalescence of black hole binaries formed from minor mergers and cause high-mass exoplanets to migrate outward. However, in a number of cases, the disks accreting onto binaries with mass ratios ∼0. 07 fail to develop eccentric modes, leading to extremely rapid inspirals. Variability in black hole accretion correlates with disk eccentricity, and we observe variability above the ∼10% level even for mass ratios of 0. 01. We demonstrate that the spatial dependence of the viscosity (e. g. , α vs. constant ν) significantly affects the degree of preferential accretion onto the secondary, resolving discrepancies between previous studies. Colder circumbinary disks remain eccentric even at q ∼ 0. 01 and sustain deep, asymmetric cavities.