Abstract
We study the formation of gaps in circumbinary disks of comparable mass massive black holes binaries (q ∼ 1) using numerical simulations. We vary the disk properties (mass, thermodynamics, etc.) and we found that the most massive and thickest disks are able to prevent the gap formation in them. We contrast our numerical results against analytical models of the angular momentum exchange between the binary and the disk. This models successfully predicts in which disks a gap is formed and are based on the gravitational interaction between the binary and a non-axisymetric density enhancement in the disk.
