Inferring eccentricity evolution from observations of coalescing binary black holes

Bonino, Alice; Gamba, R.; Schmidt, P.; Nagar, Alessandro; Pratten, G.; Breschi, M.; Rettegno, P.; Bernuzzi, Sebastiano

doi:10.1103/physrevd.107.064024

Cited by 15 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 77 publications

(123 reference statements)

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“…However, the definitions of this reference epoch and of eccentricity itself are inconsistent across different state-of-the-art eccentric waveform approximants, in part because eccentricity is a gauge-dependent quantity within general relativity. There have been attempts toward bringing all these definitions on an equal footing (Knee et al 2022;Ramos-Buades et al 2022;Bonino et al 2023;Shaikh et al 2023), allowing consistent comparison of eccentricities derived from diverse waveform approximants.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Consistent Eccentricities for Gravitational-wave Astronomy: Resolving Discrepancies between Astrophysical Simulations and Waveform Models

Vijaykumar,

Hanselman,

Zevin

2024

ApJ

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Detecting imprints of orbital eccentricity in gravitational-wave (GW) signals promises to shed light on the formation mechanisms of binary black holes. To constrain the formation mechanisms, distributions of eccentricity derived from numerical simulations of astrophysical formation channels are compared to the estimates of eccentricity inferred from GW signals. We report that the definition of eccentricity typically used in astrophysical simulations is inconsistent with the one used while modeling GW signals, with the differences mainly arising due to the choice of reference frequency used in both cases. We also posit a prescription for calculating eccentricity from astrophysical simulations, by evolving ordinary differential equations obtained from post-Newtonian theory and using the dominant (ℓ = m = 2) mode’s frequency as the reference frequency; this ensures consistency in the definitions. On comparing the existing eccentricities of the binaries present in the Cluster Monte Carlo catalog of globular cluster simulations with the eccentricities calculated using the prescription presented here, we find a significant discrepancy at e ≳ 0.2; this discrepancy becomes worse with increasing eccentricity. We note the implications this discrepancy has for existing studies and recommend that care be taken when comparing data-driven constraints on eccentricity to expectations from astrophysical formation channels.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Consistent Eccentricities for Gravitational-wave Astronomy: Resolving Discrepancies between Astrophysical Simulations and Waveform Models

Vijaykumar,

Hanselman,

Zevin

2024

ApJ

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Resolving the eccentricity of stellar mass binary black holes with next generation ground-based gravitational wave detectors

Saini

2024

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Next generation ground-based gravitational wave (GW) detectors are expected to detect ∼104–105 binary black holes (BBHs) per year. Understanding the formation pathways of these binaries is an open question. Orbital eccentricity can be used to distinguish between the formation channels of compact binaries, as different formation channels are expected to yield distinct eccentricity distributions. Due to the rapid decay of eccentricity caused by the emission of GWs, measuring smaller values of eccentricity poses a challenge for current GW detectors due to their limited sensitivity. In this study, we explore the potential of next generation GW detectors such as Voyager, Cosmic Explorer (CE), and Einstein Telescope (ET) to resolve the eccentricity of BBH systems. Considering a GWTC-3 like population of BBHs and assuming some fiducial eccentricity distributions as well as an astrophysically motivated eccentricity distribution (Zevin et al. (2021)), we calculate the fraction of detected binaries that can be confidently distinguished as eccentric. We find that for Zevin eccentricity distribution, Voyager, CE, and ET can confidently measure the non-zero eccentricity for $\sim 3\%$, $9\%$, and $13\%$ of the detected BBHs, respectively. In addition to the fraction of resolvable eccentric binaries, our findings indicate that Voyager, CE, and ET require typical minimum eccentricities ≳ 0.02, 5 × 10−3, and 10−3 at 10 Hz GW frequency, respectively, to identify a BBH system as eccentric. The better low-frequency sensitivity of ET significantly enhances its capacity to accurately measure eccentricity.

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Faithful effective-one-body waveform of small-mass-ratio coalescing black hole binaries: The eccentric, nonspinning case

Albanesi,

Bernuzzi,

Damour

et al. 2023

Phys. Rev. D

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Inferring eccentricity evolution from observations of coalescing binary black holes

Cited by 15 publications

References 77 publications

Consistent Eccentricities for Gravitational-wave Astronomy: Resolving Discrepancies between Astrophysical Simulations and Waveform Models

Consistent Eccentricities for Gravitational-wave Astronomy: Resolving Discrepancies between Astrophysical Simulations and Waveform Models

Resolving the eccentricity of stellar mass binary black holes with next generation ground-based gravitational wave detectors

Faithful effective-one-body waveform of small-mass-ratio coalescing black hole binaries: The eccentric, nonspinning case

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