The Universal Eccentricity Distribution for Dynamical Gravitational-Wave Merger Channels
Institute for Advanced Study（高等研究院）；University of Cambridge（剑桥大学）；Gonville & Caius College（贡维尔与凯斯学院）；Princeton University（普林斯顿大学）；Cardiff University（卡迪夫大学）；Niels Bohr International Academy, The Niels Bohr Institute（尼尔斯·玻尔国际学院，尼尔斯·玻尔研究所）
Mor Rozner, Teagan A. Clarke, Isobel M. Romero-Shaw, Johan Samsing
We argue that all dynamical astrophysical black hole merger channels are expected to result in a common eccentricity distribution at gravitational wave (GW) frequencies relevant for LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA (LVK) in the high eccentricity limit. This follows from the large separation of scales between the GW regime required for creating eccentric mergers in LVK, and the underlying astrophysical formation environment. Our analytical solution shows exceptional agreement with numerical studies. This finding has important implications for both theoretical studies and ongoing searches for eccentric GW sources.
The origin of black hole mergers discovered by the LIGO and Virgo gravitational-wave observatories is currently unknown. GW190521 is the heaviest black hole merger detected so far. Its observed high mass and possible spin-induced orbital precession could arise from the binary having formed following a close encounter. An observational signature of close encounters is eccentric binary orbit; however, this feature is currently difficult to identify due to the lack of suitable gravitational waveforms. No eccentric merger has been previously found. Here we report 611 numerical relativity simulatio…
Impact of eccentricity on the population properties of neutron star - black hole mergers
Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute)（马克斯·普朗克引力物理研究所（爱因斯坦研究所））；Instituto de Física Teórica UAM/CSIC, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid（马德里自治大学理论物理研究所）；School of Physics and Astronomy and Institute for Gravitational Wave Astronomy, University of Birmingham（伯明翰大学物理与天文学学院及引力波天文研究所）
The inspiral-merger-ringdown (IMR) consistency test checks the consistency of the final mass and final spin of a binary black hole merger remnant, independently inferred via the inspiral and merger-ringdown parts of the waveform. As binaries are expected to be nearly circularized when entering the frequency band of ground-based detectors, tests of general relativity (GR) currently employ quasicircular waveforms. We quantify the effect of residual orbital eccentricity on the IMR consistency test. We find that eccentricity causes a significant systematic bias in the inferred final mass and spin …
A universal framework to identify eccentric binary mergers: GW200105 case study
Princeton University（普林斯顿大学）；Monash University（蒙纳士大学）；OzGrav: The ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery（引力波发现ARC卓越中心）；Cardiff University（卡迪夫大学）；University of Portsmouth（朴茨茅斯大学）；Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics（马克斯·普朗克天体物理学研究所）
Mechanisms have been proposed to enhance the merger rate of stellar mass black hole binaries, such as the Von Zeipel-Lidov-Kozai mechanism (vZLK). However, high inclinations are required in order to greatly excite the eccentricity and to reduce the merger time through vZLK. Here, we propose a novel pathway through which compact binaries could merge due to eccentricity increase in general, including in a near coplanar configuration. Specifically, a compact binary migrating in an AGN disk could be captured in an evection resonance, when the precession rate of the binary equals their orbital peri…
Merger remnant and eccentricity dynamics surrogates for eccentric nonspinning black hole binaries
University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth（麻省大学达特茅斯分校）；Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics(Albert Einstein Institute)（马克斯·普朗克引力物理研究所（爱因斯坦研究所））；Cornell University（康奈尔大学）；University of California Santa Barbara（加州大学圣塔芭芭拉分校）；California State University Fullerton（加州州立大学富勒顿分校）；Northwestern University（西北大学）
Eccentricity in Disguise? Insights from GW231123 and Numerically Simulated Binary Black Hole Merger Signals
Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute)（马克斯·普朗克引力物理研究所（爱因斯坦研究所））；Institute for Gravitation & the Cosmos, Department of Physics, Penn State University（宾夕法尼亚州立大学引力与宇宙学研究所物理学系）；Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay（印度理工学院孟买分校）；Gran Sasso Science Institute (GSSI)（格兰萨索科学研究所）；INFN, Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso（意大利国家核物理研究所格兰萨索国家实验室）；School of Physics and Astronomy and Institute for Gravitational Wave Astronomy, University of Birmingham（伯明翰大学物理与天文学院及引力波天文学研究所）
Orbital eccentricity in a neutron star - black hole merger
University of Birmingham（伯明翰大学）；Instituto de Física Teórica UAM/CSIC, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid（马德里自治大学理论物理研究所(UAM/CSIC)）；Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute)（马克斯·普朗克引力物理学研究所(爱因斯坦研究所)）
Black-hole - neutron-star mergers: new numerical-relativity simulations and multipolar effective-one-body model with spin precession and eccentricity
Universitat de les Illes Balears（巴利阿里群岛大学）；Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena（耶拿弗里德里希·席勒大学）；The Pennsylvania State University（宾夕法尼亚州立大学）；University of California, Berkeley（加州大学伯克利分校）；Università di Bologna（博洛尼亚大学）
Evidence for orbital eccentricity supports a hierarchical origin for GW231123
School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University（武汉大学物理科学与技术学院）；School of Physics and Astronomy, Beijing Normal University（北京师范大学物理与天文学院）；Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute)（马克斯·普朗克引力物理研究所（爱因斯坦研究所））；Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Extreme Universe, Ningbo University（宁波大学极端宇宙浙江省重点实验室）；Institute of Fundamental Physics and Quantum Technology, Ningbo University（宁波大学基础物理与量子技术研究院）
We study the spin and eccentricity evolution of black-hole (BH) binaries that are perturbed by tertiary masses and experience the Lidov-Kozai (LK) excitation. We focus on three aspects. Firstly, we study the spin-orbit alignment of the inner binary following the approach outlined by Antonini et al. [MNRAS 480, L58 (2018)] and Liu and Lai [ApJ 863, 68 (2018)], yet allowing the spins to have random initial orientations. We confirm the existence of a dynamical attractor that drives the spin-orbit angle at the end of the LK evolution to a value given by the initial angle between the spin and the o…
The radiation of linear momentum imparts a recoil (or "kick") to the center of mass of a merging black hole binary system. Recent numerical relativity calculations have shown that eccentricity can lead to an approximate 25% increase in recoil velocities for equal-mass, spinning binaries with spins lying in the orbital plane ("superkick" configurations) [U Sperhake et al. Phys. Rev. D 101 (2020) 024044 (arXiv:1910.01598)]. Here we investigate the impact of nonzero eccentricity on the kick magnitude and gravitational-wave emission of nonspinning, unequal-mass black hole binaries. We confirm that…
Inferring host environment properties and gravitational-wave decay time from the eccentricity measurement of dynamically captured binaries
Chennai Mathematical Institute（金奈数学研究所）；Cardiff University（卡迪夫大学）；Montclair State University（蒙克莱尔州立大学）；Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute)（马克斯·普朗克引力物理研究所（爱因斯坦研究所））；Leibniz Universität Hannover（汉诺威莱布尼茨大学）
Pair instability supernovae are thought to restrict the formation of black holes in the mass range ~50 - 135 solar masses. However, black holes with masses within this "high mass gap" are expected to form as the remnants of binary black hole mergers. These remnants can merge again dynamically in densely populated environments such as globular clusters. The hypothesis that the binary black hole merger GW190521 formed dynamically is supported by its high mass. Orbital eccentricity can also be a signature of dynamical formation, since a binary that merges quickly after becoming bound may not circ…
The orbital eccentricity of a merging binary black hole leaves an imprint on the associated gravitational-wave signal that can reveal whether the binary formed in isolation or in a dynamical environment, such as the core of a dense star cluster. We present measurements of the eccentricity of 26 binary black hole mergers in the second LIGO--Virgo gravitational-wave transient catalog, updating the total number of binary black holes analysed for orbital eccentricity to 36. Using the \texttt{SEOBNRE} waveform, we find the data for GW190620A is poorly explained by the zero-eccentricity hypothesis (…
The possible formation of stellar-mass binary black holes through dynamical interactions in dense stellar environments predicts the existence of binaries with non-negligible eccentricity in the frequency band of ground-based gravitational wave detectors; the detection of binary black hole mergers with measurable orbital eccentricity would validate the existence of this formation channel. Waveform templates currently used in the matched-filter gravitational-wave searches of LIGO-Virgo data neglect effects of eccentricity which is expected to reduce their efficiency to detect eccentric binary bl…
The astrophysical origin of gravitational wave (GW) transients is a timely open question in the wake of discoveries by LIGO/Virgo. In active galactic nuclei (AGNs), binaries form and evolve efficiently by interaction with a dense population of stars and the gaseous AGN disk. Previous studies have shown that stellar-mass black hole (BH) mergers in such environments can explain the merger rate and the number of suspected hierarchical mergers observed by LIGO/Virgo. The binary eccentricity distribution can provide further information to distinguish between astrophysical models. Here we derive the…
Spherical harmonic modes of gravitational waveforms for inspiraling compact binaries in eccentric orbits from post-Newtonian (PN) theory accurate to third post-Newtonian order, and those extracted from numerical relativity (NR) simulations for binary black holes (BBHs) are compared. We combine results from the two approaches (PN and NR) to construct time-domain hybrid waveforms that describe the complete evolution of BBH mergers through inspiral-merger-ringdown (IMR) stages. These hybrids are then used in constructing a fully analytical dominant mode ($\ell$=2, $|m|$=2) eccentric IMR model. A …
The Cost of Circularity: Quantifying Eccentricity-Induced Biases in Binary Black Hole Inference
University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee（威斯康星大学密尔沃基分校）；The Pennsylvania State University（宾夕法尼亚州立大学）；University of California, Berkeley（加州大学伯克利分校）；University of Florida（佛罗里达大学）
The Dragon-II simulations -- III. Compact binary mergers in clusters with up to 1 million stars: mass, spin, eccentricity, merger rate and pair instability supernovae rate
基于 Dragon-II 的 19 个 N 体星团模拟，研究致密双星并合的质量、偏心率、并合率及不稳定对超新星率，揭示原初与动力学并合的差异，并给出多信使探测前景。
Black-hole (BH) binary mergers driven by gravitational perturbations of tertiary companions constitute an important class of dynamical formation channels for compact binaries detected by LIGO/VIRGO. Recent works have examined numerically the combined orbital and spin dynamics of BH binaries that undergo large Lidov-Kozai (LK) eccentricity oscillations induced by a highly inclined companion and merge via gravitational wave radiation. However, the extreme eccentricity variations make such systems difficult to characterize analytically. In this paper, we develop an analytical formalism for unders…
The environment surrounding supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in galactic nuclei (GNs) is expected to harbour stellar-mass binary black hole (BBH) populations. These binaries were suggested to form a hierarchical triple system with the SMBH, and gravitational perturbations from the SMBH can enhance the mergers of BBHs through Lidov-Kozai (LK) oscillations. Previous studies determined the expected binary parameter distribution for this merger channel in single GNs. Here we account for the different spatial distribution and mass distribution models of BBHs around SMBHs and perform direct high-pre…
The gravitational-wave (GW) detection of GW190521 has provided new insights on the mass distribution of black holes and new constraints for astrophysical formation channels. With independent claims of GW190521 having significant pre-merger eccentricity, we investigate what this implies for GW190521-like binaries that form dynamically. The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) will also be sensitive to GW190521-like binaries if they are circular from an isolated formation channel. We show, however, that GW190521-like binaries that form dynamically may skip the LISA band entirely. To this en…
Orbital eccentricity is a key signature of dynamical binary black hole formation. The gravitational waves from a coalescing binary contain information about its orbital eccentricity, which may be measured if the binary retains sufficient eccentricity near merger. Dedicated waveforms are required to measure eccentricity. Several models have been put forward, and show good agreement with numerical relativity at the level of a few percent or better. However, there are multiple ways to define eccentricity for inspiralling systems, and different models internally use different definitions of eccent…
Astrophysical Implications of Eccentricity in Gravitational Waves from Neutron Star-Black Hole Binaries
Gravity Exploration Institute, School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University（卡迪夫大学物理与天文学学院引力探索研究所）；Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics（马克斯·普朗克天体物理学研究所）；Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute)（马克斯·普朗克引力物理学研究所（阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦研究所））；Adler Planetarium（阿德勒天文馆）；Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA), Northwestern University（西北大学跨学科天体物理探索与研究中心）；National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, National Institutes of Natural Sciences（日本国立自然科学研究机构国立天文台）
The growing population of compact binary mergers detected with gravitational waves contains multiple events that are challenging to explain through isolated binary evolution. Such events have higher masses than are expected in isolated binaries, component spin-tilt angles that are misaligned, and/or non-negligible orbital eccentricities. We investigate the orbital eccentricities of 62 binary black hole candidates from the third gravitational-wave transient catalogue of the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaboration with an aligned-spin, moderate-eccentricity waveform model. Within this framework, we find …
We present a novel universal relation for binary neutron star mergers with long-lived neutron star remnants: inspired by recent work based on numerical relativity simulations, we propose a novel approach using perturbative calculations that allow us to relate the pre-merger neutron star binary tidal deformability to the effective compactness of the post-merger remnant. Our results allow for the prediction of the stellar parameters of a long-lived remnant neutron star from the study of gravitational waves emitted during the pre-merger phase.
Numerical simulations of low-mass black hole-neutron star mergers with moderate eccentricities
Institut für Physik und Astronomie, Universität Potsdam（波茨坦大学物理与天文学研究所）；Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute)（马克斯·普朗克引力物理学研究所（爱因斯坦研究所））
