2024/11/13 by Kai Hendriks, Dany Atallah, Hendriks, Kai +15 · 3 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE) #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2411.08572
openalex publication_date 2024/11/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The phase evolution of gravitational waves (GWs) can be modulated by the astrophysical environment surrounding the source, which provides a probe for the origin of individual binary black holes (BBHs) using GWs alone. We here study the evolving phase of the GW waveform derived from a large set of simulations of BBH mergers forming in dense stellar clusters through binary-single interactions. We uncover that a well-defined fraction of the assembled eccentric GW sources will have a notable GW phase shift induced by the remaining third object. The magnitude of the GW phase shift often exceeds conservative analytical estimates due to strong 3-body interactions, which occasionally results in GW sources with clearly shifted and perturbed GW waveforms. This opens up promising opportunities for current and future GW detectors, as observing such a phase shift can identify the formation environment of a BBH, as well as help to characterise the local properties of its surrounding environment.