Simulating Effects of Dynamical Friction in a Supermassive Black Hole Binary Merger

Supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs) are expected to be found at the center of galaxies that have recently merged. After galaxies merge, the main mechanism that brings supermassive black holes to their centers is dynamical friction, a drag force that comes from the gravitational interactions of these supermassive black holes with field stars. We present a simulation model of dynamical friction that seeks to explore how various orbital and galaxy properties can affect the expected separation distribution of SMBHBs. We then investigate how these results compare to known dual active galactic nuclei (AGN) samples.