Mimicking mergers: mistaking black hole captures as mergers

Guo, W., Williams, D. , Heng, I. S. , Gabbard, H., Bae, Y.-B., Kang, G. and Zhu, Z.-H. (2022) Mimicking mergers: mistaking black hole captures as mergers. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 516(3), pp. 3847-3860. (doi: 10.1093/mnras/stac2385)

Abstract

As the number of gravitational wave observations has increased in recent years, the variety of sources has broadened. Here, we investigate whether it is possible for the current generation of detectors to distinguish between very short-lived gravitational wave signals from mergers between high-mass black holes and the signal produced by a close encounter between two black holes, which results in gravitational capture and ultimately a merger. We compare the posterior probability distributions produced by analysing simulated signals from both types of progenitor events, both under ideal and realistic scenarios. We show that while under ideal conditions it is possible to distinguish both progenitors, under realistic conditions they are indistinguishable. This has important implications for the interpretation of such short signals, and we therefore advocate that these signals be the focus of additional investigation even when satisfactory results have been achieved from standard analyses.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Williams, Dr Daniel and Heng, Professor Ik Siong and Gabbard, Hunter Arthur
• Authors: Guo, W., Williams, D., Heng, I. S., Gabbard, H., Bae, Y.-B., Kang, G., and Zhu, Z.-H.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Physics and Astronomy
• Research Centre: College of Science and Engineering > School of Physics and Astronomy > Institute for Gravitational Research
• Journal Name: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• ISSN: 0035-8711
• ISSN (Online): 1365-2966
• Published Online: 26 August 2022
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2022 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 516(3): 3847-3860
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy
• Data DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6384509

Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
310743		Investigations in Gravitational Radiation: 1-year extension	Sheila Rowan	Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)	ST/V001736/1	P&S - Physics & Astronomy
312546		Investigations in Gravitational Radiation	Sheila Rowan	Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)	ST/V005634/1	ENG - Electronics & Nanoscale Engineering