Gas dynamical friction as a binary formation mechanism in AGN discs

In this paper, we study how gaseous dynamical friction (DF) affects the motion of fly-by stellar-mass black holes (sBHs) embedded in active galactic nucleus (AGN) discs. We perform three-body integrations of the interaction of two co-planar sBHs in nearby, initially circular orbits around the supermassive black hole. We find that DF can facilitate the formation of gravitationally bound near-Keplerian binaries in AGN discs, and we delineate the discrete ranges of impact parameters and AGN disc parameters for which such captures occur. We also report trends in the bound binaries’ eccentricity and sense of rotation (prograde or retrograde with respect to the background AGN disc) as a function of the impact parameter of the initial encounter. While based on an approximate description of gaseous friction, our results suggest that binary formation in AGN discs should be common and may produce both prograde and retrograde, as well as both circular and eccentric binaries.