Secular evolution of compact binaries near massive black holes:
  gravitational wave sources and other exotica
  The environment near super massive black holes (SMBHs) in galactic nuclei
contain a large number of stars and compact objects. A fraction of these are
likely to be members of binaries. Here we discuss the binary population of
stellar black holes and neutron stars near SMBHs and focus on the secular
evolution of such binaries, due to the perturbation by the SMBH. Binaries with
highly inclined orbits in respect to their orbit around the SMBH are strongly
affected by secular Kozai processes, which periodically change their
eccentricities and inclinations (Kozai-cycles). During periapsis approach, at
the highest eccentricities during the Kozai-cycles, gravitational wave emission
becomes highly efficient. Some binaries in this environment can inspiral and
coalesce at timescales much shorter than a Hubble time and much shorter than
similar binaries which do not reside near a SMBH. The close environment of
SMBHs could therefore serve as catalyst for the inspiral and coalescence of
binaries, and strongly affect their orbital properties. Such compact binaries
would be detectable as gravitational wave (GW) sources by the next generation
of GW detectors (e.g. advanced- LIGO). About 0.5% of such nuclear merging
binaries will enter the LIGO observational window while on orbit that are still
very eccentric (e>~0.5). The efficient gravitational wave analysis for such
systems would therefore require the use of eccentric templates. We also find
that binaries very close to the MBH could evolve through a complex dynamical
(non-secular) evolution leading to emission of several GW pulses during only a
few yrs (though these are likely to be rare). Finally, we note that the
formation of close stellar binaries, X-ray binaries and their merger products
could be induced by similar secular processes, combined with tidal friction
rather than GW emission as in the case of compact object binaries.
