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arXiv · 2406.11926

A Tale of Two Black Holes: Multiband Gravitational-Wave Measurement of Recoil Kicks

Shobhit Ranjan·Karan Jani·Alexander H. Nitz·Kelly Holley-Bockelmann·Curt Cutler
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Abstract

The non-linear dynamics of General Relativity leave their imprint on remnants of black hole mergers in the form of a recoil ``kick''. The kick has profound astrophysical implications across the black hole mass range from stellar to super-massive. However, a robust measurement of the kick for generic binaries from gravitational-wave observations has proved so far to be extremely challenging. In this \emph{letter}, we demonstrate the prospects of measuring black hole kicks through a multiband gravitational-wave network consisting of space mission LISA, the current earth-based detector network and a third-generation detector. For two distinct cases of remnant black hole kick (68 km/s, 1006 km/s) emerging from near identical pre-merger configuration of GW190521 -- the first confirmed intermediate-mass black hole -- we find that the multiband network will recover with 90\% credible level the projection of the kick vector relative to the orbital plane within tens of km/s accuracy. Such precise measurement of the kick offer a new set of multi-messenger follow-ups and unprecedented tests of astrophysical formation channels.

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Shobhit Ranjan, Karan Jani, Alexander H. Nitz, Kelly Holley-Bockelmann, Curt Cutler. 2024-06-17. A Tale of Two Black Holes: Multiband Gravitational-Wave Measurement of Recoil Kicks. https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.11926

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