Inferring host environment properties and gravitational-wave decay time from the eccentricity measurement of dynamically captured binaries

TL;DR

This paper presents a method to determine the host environment of eccentric binary mergers from gravitational wave data, using eccentricity and mass posteriors to infer capture parameters and decay times.

Contribution

It introduces a novel framework linking eccentricity measurements to astrophysical environment constraints for dynamical GW captures.

Findings

Estimated 71% probability GW200105 originated in a nuclear star cluster.

Inferred GW decay time from capture to merger is 11-156 days for GW200105.

Method can distinguish host environments using eccentricity and mass posteriors.

Abstract

Dynamical capture in dense stellar environments is a promising channel for producing eccentric compact binary mergers. Although there have been no confident detections of eccentric mergers to date, a few candidates show indications of non-negligible in-band eccentricity upon re-analysis of the data. By assuming an observed eccentric event originates from a dynamical gravitational wave (GW) capture, we show that it is possible to identify the host environment using the eccentricity and mass posteriors. In particular, the eccentricity posterior can be mapped to posteriors on key capture parameters, such as the relative velocity at infinity and the impact parameter. By comparing these with the expected velocity distributions of different astrophysical environments, we can place constraints on the likely host. Assuming that it originated from a GW capture, we applied this framework to the neutron star-black hole merger GW200105. By comparing with the velocity dispersion distributions of neutron stars in the cores of globular clusters (GCs) and nuclear star clusters (NSCs), we find the probability that GW200105 merged in a GC (NSC) to be 29% (71%). As we anticipate detecting several eccentric mergers in the future, this method can provide a valuable astrophysical diagnostic of their host environments on a single-event basis; this can be straightforwardly generalized to a population of eccentric binaries. The formalism we develop is also applied to GW190521, but is less constraining for that event. Lastly, we infer a GW decay time from capture to merger of 11-156 days for GW200105.