Eccentric Black Hole Gravitational-Wave Capture Sources in Galactic Nuclei: Distribution of Binary Parameters

TL;DR

This paper studies the initial orbital parameters of eccentric binary black hole mergers in galactic nuclei, highlighting how their eccentricity and distribution depend on black hole masses and the galactic environment, with implications for gravitational-wave detection.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed distribution of initial orbital parameters for eccentric black hole mergers formed via gravitational-wave capture in galactic nuclei, considering multi-mass populations.

Findings

A significant fraction (43-94%) of high-mass black hole binaries are eccentric at 10 Hz.

Eccentricity at the last stable orbit varies with black hole mass, typically 0.005-0.05 for lower masses and 0.1-0.2 for higher masses.

Current LIGO/Virgo detections could be consistent with eccentric sources due to limited low-frequency sensitivity.

Abstract

Mergers of binary black holes on eccentric orbits are among the targets for second-generation ground-based gravitational-wave detectors. These sources may commonly form in galactic nuclei due to gravitational-wave emission during close flyby events of single objects. We determine the distributions of initial orbital parameters for a population of these gravitational-wave sources. Our results show that the initial dimensionless pericenter distance systematically decreases with the binary component masses and the mass of the central supermassive black hole, and its distribution depends sensitively on the highest possible black hole mass in the nuclear star cluster. For a multi-mass black hole population with masses between 5 Msun and 80 Msun, we find that between 43-69% (68-94%) of 30 Msun - 30 Msun (10 Msun - 10 Msun) sources have an eccentricity greater than 0.1 when the gravitational-wave signal reaches 10 Hz, but less than 10% of the sources with binary component masses less than 30 Msun remain eccentric at this level near the last stable orbit (LSO). The eccentricity at LSO is typically between 0.005-0.05 for the lower-mass BHs, and 0.1 - 0.2 for the highest-mass BHs. Thus, due to the limited low-frequency sensitivity, the six currently known quasi-circular LIGO/Virgo sources could still be compatible with this originally highly eccentric source population. However, at the design sensitivity of these instruments, the measurement of the eccentricity and mass distribution of merger events may be a useful diagnostic to identify the fraction of GW sources formed in this channel.