Constraining the Binarity of Massive Black Holes in the Galactic Center and Some Nearby Galaxies via Pulsar Timing Array Observations of Gravitational Waves

TL;DR

This paper explores how pulsar timing arrays can detect or constrain the existence of binary massive black holes in the Galactic center and nearby galaxies, offering insights into black hole and galaxy evolution.

Contribution

It assesses the detectability of binary MBHs via PTA observations and provides parameter constraints for several galaxies, highlighting the potential of future PTAs to uncover low-mass black hole companions.

Findings

A BBH in the Galactic center could be detected if certain mass ratio and orbital parameters are met.

PTAs could reveal black hole companions in M31 and M87 with specific mass ratios and orbital distances.

Future PTAs could detect low-mass black hole companions down to stellar masses in nearby galaxies.

Abstract

Massive black holes (MBHs) exist in the Galactic center (GC) and other nearby galactic nuclei. As natural outcome of galaxy mergers, some MBHs may have a black hole (BH) companion. In this paper, assuming that the MBHs in the GC and some nearby galaxies are in binaries with orbital periods ranging from months to years (gravitational-wave frequency $\sim1-100$\,nHz), we investigate the detectability of gravitational-waves from these binary MBHs (BBHs) and constraints on the parameter space for the existence of BBHs in the GC, LMC, M31, M32, and M87, that may be obtained by current/future pulsar timing array (PTA) observations. We find that a BBH in the GC, if any, can be revealed by the Square Kilometer Array PTA (SKA-PTA) if its mass ratio $q\gtrsim10^{-4}-10^{-3}$ and semimajor axis $a\sim20-10^3$\,AU. The existence of a BH companion of the MBH can be revealed by SKA-PTA with $\sim20$-year observations in M31 if $q\gtrsim10^{-4}$ and $a\sim10^2-10^4$\,AU or in M87 if $q\gtrsim10^{-5}$ and $a\sim10^3-2\times10^4$\,AU, but not in LMC and M32 if $q\ll1$. If a number of milli-second stable pulsars with distances $\lesssim0.1-1$\,pc away from the central MBH in the GC, LMC, M32, or M31, can be detected in future and applied to PTAs, the BH companion with mass even down to $\sim100M_\odot$, close to stellar masses, can be revealed by such PTAs. Future PTAs are expected to provide an independent way to reveal BBHs and low-mass MBH companions in the GC and nearby galaxies, improving our understandings of the formation and evolution of MBHs and galaxies.