Abstract

While several promising candidate supermassive black hole binaries have been identified, more realistic physical modeling of these systems will be necessary to confirm their identity and perform robust searches in the era of big-data astronomy. Unfortunately, the large range of temporal and physical scales and wide parameter space have historically made their modeling prohibitive when performed via full 3D general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations (3D-GRMHD). I will first demonstrate the necessity of this type of modeling, despite its complexity and computational expense, and then briefly describe a new tool we have built to aid in the effort. I will present our recent 3D-GRMHD simulations which extend longer in duration than comparable prior models and achieve higher resolution and global realism, made possible by using our new multi-domain/multi-physics code, PatchworkMHD. With these improvements we have found unexpected 3D hydrodynamical and magnetic behavior that is guiding us towards unique binary observational signatures. In upcoming surveys like Vera Rubin Observatory’s LSST these unique signatures will be key to confirming the identity of binary black hole systems and secure them as a corner-stone of multi-messenger astrophysics.