Gravitational Wave Detector Sensitivity to Eccentric Black Hole Mergers

Shubhagata Bhaumik; V. Gayathri; Imre Bartos; Jeremiah Anglin; Gregorio Carullo; James Healy; Sergey Klimenko; Jacob Lange; Carlos Lousto; Tanmaya Mishra; Marek J. Szczepańczyk

arXiv · 2410.15192

Gravitational Wave Detector Sensitivity to Eccentric Black Hole Mergers

Shubhagata Bhaumik·V. Gayathri·Imre Bartos·Jeremiah Anglin·Gregorio Carullo·James Healy·Sergey Klimenko·Jacob Lange·Carlos Lousto·Tanmaya Mishra·Marek J. Szczepańczyk

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Abstract

Orbital eccentricity in compact binary mergers carries crucial information about the binary's formation and environment. There are emerging signs that some of the mergers detected by the LIGO and Virgo gravitational wave detectors could indeed be eccentric. Nevertheless, the identification of eccentricity via gravitational waves remains challenging, to a large extent because of the limited availability of eccentric gravitational waveforms. While multiple suites of eccentric waveforms have recently been developed, they each cover only a part of the binary parameter space. Here we evaluate the sensitivity of LIGO to eccentric waveforms from the SXS and RIT numerical relativity catalogs and the TEOBResumS-Dali waveform model using data from LIGO-Virgo-Kagra's third observing run. The obtained sensitivities, as functions of eccentricity, mass and mass ratio, are important inputs to understanding detection prospects and observational population constrains. In addition, our results enable the comparison of the waveforms to establish their compatibility and applicability for searches and parameter estimation.

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Shubhagata Bhaumik, V. Gayathri, Imre Bartos, Jeremiah Anglin, Gregorio Carullo, James Healy, Sergey Klimenko, Jacob Lange, Carlos Lousto, Tanmaya Mishra, Marek J. Szczepańczyk. 2024-10-19. Gravitational Wave Detector Sensitivity to Eccentric Black Hole Mergers. https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.15192

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