Searcharxiv⌕ Search
Home/Archive/arXiv

arXiv · 2209.01110

Distinguishing compact objects in extreme-mass-ratio inspirals by gravitational waves

Lu-Jia Xu·Shu-Cheng Yang·Wen-Biao Han·Xing-Yu Zhong·Run-Dong Tang·Yuan-Hao Zhang
View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

Extreme-mass-ratio inspirals (EMRIs) are promising gravitational-wave (GW) sources for space-based GW detectors. EMRI signals typically have long durations, ranging from several months to several years, necessitating highly accurate GW signal templates for detection. In most waveform models, compact objects in EMRIs are treated as test particles without accounting for their spin, mass quadrupole, or tidal deformation. In this study, we simulate GW signals from EMRIs by incorporating the spin and mass quadrupole moments of the compact objects. We evaluate the accuracy of parameter estimation for these simulated waveforms using the Fisher Information Matrix (FIM) and find that the spin, tidal-induced quadruple, and spin-induced quadruple can all be measured with precision ranging from $10^{-2}$ to $10^{-1}$, particularly for a mass ratio of $\sim$$10^{-4}$. Assuming the ``true'' GW signals originate from an extended body inspiraling into a supermassive black hole, we compute the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and Bayes factors between a test-particle waveform template and our model, which includes the spin and quadrupole of the compact object. Our results show that the spin of compact objects can produce detectable deviations in the waveforms across all object types, while tidal-induced quadrupoles are only significant for white dwarfs, especially in cases approaching an intermediate-mass ratio. Spin-induced quadrupoles, however, have negligible effects on the waveforms. Therefore, our findings suggest that it is possible to distinguish primordial black holes from white dwarfs, and, under certain conditions, neutron stars can also be differentiated from primordial black holes.

Explore related subjects

gr-qc

Keep this discovery

BibTeXRIS

Lu-Jia Xu, Shu-Cheng Yang, Wen-Biao Han, Xing-Yu Zhong, Run-Dong Tang, Yuan-Hao Zhang. 2022-09-02. Distinguishing compact objects in extreme-mass-ratio inspirals by gravitational waves. https://doi.org/10.3390/universe11010018

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2026

Electrovacuum Black Hole Uniqueness

We prove the black hole uniqueness conjecture in the axially symmetric, stationary, electrovacuum setting, subject to the refined asymptotic analysis of the associated singular harmonic maps, which includes an analyticity hypothesis at the axes. More precisely, it is shown that any asymptotically flat solution of the Einstein--Maxwell equations in this class, with more than one black hole horizon component is either: Majumdar--Papapetrou, up to a duality rotation, in which case all logarithmic angle defects vanish, or every finite axis rod logarithmic angle defect is strictly negative and hence every interaction force is strictly attractive. The proof extends the singular harmonic map method used for vacuum Kerr uniqueness in [18].

gr-qc↗
arXiv2026

Constraining Modified Mass-to-Horizon Cosmology Through Primordial Inflationary Observables

We investigate slow-roll inflation in a modified cosmological framework inspired by a generalized mass-to-horizon relation (MHR), $M=\gamma {c^2 L^n}/{G}$, where $n$ is a real parameter and $\gamma$ a dimensional constant. Using Padmanabhan's emergence paradigm, we derive the modified Friedmann equations for a flat FRW universe and analyze the dynamics of a canonical scalar field (inflaton) under the slow-roll approximation. We study the resulting inflationary phenomenology for power-law and Starobinsky potentials. For power-law potentials, the MHR modification fails to reconcile these models with current CMB constraints on $r$ and $n_s$. In contrast, Starobinsky inflation exhibits significant sensitivity to deviations from $n=1$. A perturbative analysis ($n=1+\Delta$) yields corrections to inflationary observables. We observe that the scalar power-spectrum normalization, under a fixed-Starobinsky prescription, imposes the stringent constraint $0.960 \lesssim n \lesssim 1.040$ for $N=60$ efolds. This is considerably tighter than spectral-index bounds. Our results establish inflation, particularly Starobinsky-like models, as a sensitive probe of generalized horizon thermodynamics and departures from standard MHR scaling.

gr-qc↗
arXiv2026

Improving the Sensitivity of Gravitational Wave Detection with Weighted Conformal Prediction

In the last decade, kilometre-scale interferometric gravitational-wave detectors have observed hundreds of compact binary mergers, the majority of which are binary black holes. However, the data are noise-dominated, and multiple independent search algorithms (pipelines) are used to enhance sensitivity and improve robustness. Rather than the standard approach of selecting the most significant pipeline output, we combine the outputs from all pipelines using a conformal prediction-based framework to provide statistically rigorous confidence estimates for candidate events. While combining pipelines improves sensitivity and ranking robustness, it requires a principled statistical framework that remains valid as data properties evolve across observing runs. A key challenge is distribution shifts between simulated datasets used for training and calibration and the real, unlabelled, observations used for testing, which can invalidate coverage guarantees and bias confidence estimates. In this work, we address this challenge by incorporating likelihood-ratio reweighting into our conformal prediction framework to account for covariate shift. Using mock datasets containing simulated signals, we demonstrate that weighted conformal prediction restores well-calibrated coverage under covariate shift and increases the confidence of events near the detection threshold, recovering true signals that would otherwise be missed.

gr-qc↗