Multiband Gravitational-Wave Astronomy: Observing binary inspirals with a decihertz detector, B-DECIGO

TL;DR

B-DECIGO, a proposed decihertz gravitational-wave detector, will enable detailed multiband observations of binary mergers, significantly improving parameter estimation and complementing existing detectors like LIGO and LISA.

Contribution

This paper evaluates B-DECIGO's potential for precise binary parameter measurements and multiband analysis, highlighting its advantages over current detectors.

Findings

B-DECIGO can measure mass ratios to within 0.1%.

It can determine black hole spins to within 10%.

Joint measurements with LISA can recover intermediate-mass black hole parameters at percent-level accuracy.

Abstract

An evolving Japanese gravitational-wave (GW) mission in the deci-Hz band: B-DECIGO (DECihertz laser Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory) will enable us to detect GW150914-like binary black holes, GW170817-like binary neutron stars, and intermediate-mass binary black holes out to cosmological distances. The B-DECIGO band slots in between the aLIGO-Virgo-KAGRA-IndIGO (hecto-Hz) and LISA (milli-Hz) bands for broader bandwidth; the sources described emit GWs for weeks to years across the multiband to accumulate high signal-to-noise ratios. This suggests the possibility that joint detection would greatly improve the parameter estimation of the binaries. We examine B-DECIGO's ability to measure binary parameters and assess to what extent multiband analysis could improve such measurement. Using non-precessing post-Newtonian waveforms with the Fisher matrix approach, we find for systems like GW150914 and GW170817 that B-DECIGO can measure the mass ratio to within $< 0.1\%$, the individual black-hole spins to within $< 10\%$, and the coalescence time to within $< 5\,$s about a week before alerting aLIGO and electromagnetic facilities. Prior information from B-DECIGO for aLIGO can further reduce the uncertainty in the measurement of, e.g., certain neutron star tidally-induced deformations by factor of $\sim 6$, and potentially determine the spin-induced neutron star quadrupole moment. Joint LISA and B-DECIGO measurement will also be able to recover the masses and spins of intermediate-mass binary black holes at percent-level precision. However, there will be a large systematic bias in these results due to post-Newtonian approximation of exact GW signals.