From black holes to their progenitors: A full population study in measuring black hole binary parameters from ringdown signals

TL;DR

This paper analyzes how various parameters affect the detection and measurement of black hole ringdown signals from binary mergers, using multiple gravitational wave observatories, with implications for understanding black hole formation and growth.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive statistical analysis of the influence of orientation, sky position, and polarization on ringdown signal detection across different observatories.

Findings

Detection probability varies with black hole orientation and sky position.

Multimode ringdown signals can be effectively measured with advanced detectors.

Results inform event rate estimates and astrophysical models of black hole evolution.

Abstract

A perturbed black hole emits gravitational radiation, usually termed the ringdown signal, whose frequency and time-constant depends on the mass and spin of the black hole. I investigate the case of a binary black hole merger resulting from two initially non-spinning black holes of various mass ratios, in quasi-circular orbits. The observed ringdown signal will be determined, among other things, by the black hole's spin-axis orientation with respect to Earth, its sky position and polarization angle - parameters which can take any values in a particular observation. I have carried out a statistical analysis of the effect of these variables, focusing on detection and measurement of the multimode ringdown signals using the reformulated European LISA mission, Next Gravitational-Wave Observatory, NGO, the third generation ground-based observatory, Einstein Telescope and the advanced era detector, aLIGO. To the extent possible I have discussed the effect of these results on plausible event rates, as well as astrophysical implications concerning the formation and growth of supermassive and intermediate mass black holes.