Coalescence Forensics: Weighing the Hosts of Hierarchical Binary Black Hole Mergers

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new method to estimate the mass of clusters hosting hierarchical binary black hole mergers using gravitational-wave data, providing insights into the nature of these environments.

Contribution

The paper develops an analytic and numerical framework to infer host cluster masses from single GW events, considering recoil velocities and cluster dynamics, which is a novel approach.

Findings

Inferred host masses are consistent with heavy globular or nuclear star clusters.

The method can distinguish between different cluster types based on GW data.

Results depend on the assumed distribution of recoil velocities.

Abstract

We present a novel framework to infer the mass of clusters that host hierarchical binary black hole (BBH) mergers detected with gravitational-waves (GWs), on a single event basis. We show that the requirement that a second-generation (2G) remnant be retained, and subsequently undergo a dynamical encounter, places strong constraints on the mass of the cluster. Using a Plummer model as a readily interpretable baseline, we derive analytic scaling relations between the peak of the inferred host mass posterior, the GW-driven recoil velocity of the remnant, and the parameters that determine the structure of the host. We then perform exact numerical marginalization over thermal and recoil velocities, angles, and cluster structure parameters, to infer the host-mass posterior. We apply our framework to putative hierarchical mergers GW241011 and GW241110, and infer the masses of their hosts on a single-event basis. We find that these are consistent with either heavy globular clusters or nuclear star clusters, with inferred masses spanning $10^{5.7 - 7.7} M_{\odot}$ at $68\%$ confidence depending on the 2G recoil velocity distribution used.