2019/03/31 by Bao-Minh Hoang, Smadar Naoz, Bence Kocsis +4
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Binary black hole #Binary number #Eccentricity (behavior) #Gravitational wave #Interferometry #Merge (version control) #Observatory #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Supermassive black hole #astro-ph.HE #gr-qc
paper · pdf · doi:10.3847/2041-8213/ab14f7
Accepted to ApJ Letters
openalex created_date 2019/03/11 · arxiv created 2019/04/03 · openalex publication_date 2019/04/20 · arxiv updated 2019/04/25 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Abstract Stellar-mass black hole binaries (BHBs) near supermassive black holes (SMBH) in galactic nuclei undergo eccentricity oscillations due to gravitational perturbations from the SMBH. Previous works have shown that this channel can contribute to the overall BHB merger rate detected by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and Virgo Interferometer. Significantly, the SMBH gravitational perturbations on the binary’s orbit may produce eccentric BHBs which are expected to be visible using the upcoming Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) for a large fraction of their lifetime before they merge in the LIGO/Virgo band. For a proof of concept, we show that the eccentricity oscillations of these binaries can be detected with LISA for BHBs in the local universe up to a few megaparsecs, with observation periods shorter than the mission lifetime, thereby disentangling this merger channel from others. The approach presented here is straightforward to apply to a wide variety of compact object binaries with a tertiary companion.