Modelling frequency-dependent tidal deformability for environmental black-hole mergers

TL;DR

This paper introduces a waveform model for black hole mergers that accounts for frequency-dependent tidal deformability, enabling the detection of environmental effects during inspiral with high precision.

Contribution

The authors develop a novel model interpolating tidal deformability between dressed and naked black holes, applicable to environmental effects in binary mergers.

Findings

Parameters of tidal deformability can be measured with high accuracy.

The model helps understand environmental effects during black hole inspirals.

Detectability of tidal Love numbers with the Einstein Telescope is demonstrated.

Abstract

Motivated by events in which black holes can lose their environment due to tidal interactions in a binary system, we develop a waveform model in which the tidal deformability interpolates between a finite value (dressed black hole) at relatively low frequency and a zero value (naked black hole) at high frequency. We then apply this model to the example case of a black hole dressed with an ultralight scalar field and investigate the detectability of the tidal Love number with the Einstein Telescope. We show that the parameters of the tidal deformability model could be measured with high accuracy, providing a useful tool to understand dynamical environmental effects taking place during the inspiral of a binary system.