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We show that a black-hole binary with an external companion can undergoLidov-Kozai cycles that cause a close pericenter passage, leading to a rapidmerger due to gravitational-wave emission. This scenario occurs most often forsystems in which the companion has mass comparable to the reduced mass of thebinary and the companion orbit has semi-major axis within a factor of $\sim 10$of the binary semi-major axis. Using a simple population-synthesis model and3-body simulations, we estimate the rate of mergers in triple black holesystems in the field to be about six per Gpc$^3$ per year in the absence ofnatal kicks during black hole formation. This value is within the low end ofthe 90\% credible interval for the total black-hole black-hole merger rateinferred from the current LIGO results. There are many uncertainties in thesecalculations, the largest of which is the unknown distribution of natal kicks.Even modest natal kicks of $40\mbox{km s}^{-1}$ will reduce the merger rate bya factor of 40. A few percent of these systems will have eccentricity greaterthan 0.999 when they first enter the frequency band detectable by aLIGO (above10 Hz).

Lidov-Kozai Cycles with Gravitational Radiation: Merging Black Holes in Isolated Triple Systems