Distinguishing black-hole spin-orbit resonances by their gravitational-wave signatures

被引:39
|
作者
Gerosa, Davide [1 ]
O'Shaughnessy, Richard [2 ]
Kesden, Michael [3 ]
Berti, Emanuele [4 ]
Sperhake, Ulrich [1 ,4 ,5 ]
机构
[1] Univ Cambridge, Ctr Math Sci, Dept Appl Math & Theoret Phys, Cambridge CB3 0WA, England
[2] Univ Wisconsin, Ctr Gravitat & Cosmol, Milwaukee, WI 53211 USA
[3] Univ Texas Dallas, Dept Phys, Richardson, TX 75080 USA
[4] Univ Mississippi, Dept Phys & Astron, University, MS 38677 USA
[5] CALTECH, Pasadena, CA 91125 USA
来源
PHYSICAL REVIEW D | 2014年 / 89卷 / 12期
基金
美国国家科学基金会;
关键词
BINARY;
D O I
10.1103/PhysRevD.89.124025
中图分类号
P1 [天文学];
学科分类号
0704 ;
摘要
If binary black holes form following the successive core collapses of sufficiently massive binary stars, precessional dynamics may align their spins, S-1 and S-2, and the orbital angular momentum L into a plane in which they jointly precess about the total angular momentum J. These spin orientations are known as spin-orbit resonances since S-1, S-2, and L all precess at the same frequency to maintain their planar configuration. Two families of such spin-orbit resonances exist, differentiated by whether the components of the two spins in the orbital plane are either aligned or antialigned. The fraction of binary black holes in each family is determined by the stellar evolution of their progenitors, so if gravitational-wave detectors could measure this fraction they could provide important insights into astrophysical formation scenarios for binary black holes. In this paper, we show that even under the conservative assumption that binary black holes are observed along the direction of J (where precession-induced modulations to the gravitational waveforms are minimized), the waveforms of many members of each resonant family can be distinguished from all members of the other family in events with signal-to-noise ratios rho similar or equal to 10, typical of those expected for the first detections with Advanced LIGO and Virgo. We hope that our preliminary findings inspire a greater appreciation of the capability of gravitational-wave detectors to constrain stellar astrophysics and stimulate further studies of the distinguishability of spin-orbit resonant families in more expanded regions of binary black-hole parameter space.
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页数:16
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