Precision tracking of massive black hole spin evolution with LISA

Geraint Pratten; Patricia Schmidt; Hannah Middleton; Alberto Vecchio

doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.108.124045

Precision tracking of massive black hole spin evolution with LISA

Geraint Pratten, Patricia Schmidt, Hannah Middleton, Alberto Vecchio

Physics and Astronomy

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Abstract

The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) will play a vital role in constraining the origin and evolution of massive black holes throughout the Universe. In this study we use a waveform model (IMRPhenomXPHM) that includes both precession and higher multipoles, and full Bayesian inference to explore the accuracy to which LISA can constrain the binary parameters. We demonstrate that LISA will be able to track the evolution of the spins -- magnitude and orientation -- to percent accuracy, providing crucial information on the dynamics and evolution of massive black hole binaries and the galactic environment in which the merger takes place. Such accurate spin-tracking further allows LISA to measure the recoil velocity of the remnant black hole to better than 100kms−1 (90\% credibility) and its direction to a few degrees, which provides additional important astrophysical information on the post-merger association. Using a systematic suite of binaries, we showcase that the component masses will be measurable at the sub-percent level, the sky area can be constrained to within ΔΩ90≈0.01deg2, and the binary redshift to less than 0.01.

Original language	English
Article number	124045
Number of pages	19
Journal	Physical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology
Volume	108
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.108.124045
Publication status	Published - 18 Dec 2023

Bibliographical note

14+6 pages, 8 figures, fixed typo

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank Clément Bonnerot and Jean-Baptiste Bayle for useful comments on the manuscript. G. P. gratefully acknowledges support from a Royal Society University Research Fellowship No. URF\R1\221500 and No. RF\ERE\221015. P. S. and G. P. acknowledge support from STFC Grant No. ST/V005677/1. H. M. and A. V. acknowledge the support of the UK Space Agency Grants No. ST/V002813/1 and No. ST/X002071/1. A. V. acknowledges the support of the Royal Society and Wolfson Foundation. Computations were performed on the University of Birmingham’s high performance computing service BlueBEAR and the Bondi HPC Cluster at the Birmingham Institute for Gravitational Wave Astronomy. Parts of this analysis made use of numpy [194], matplotlib [195], scipy [196], getdist [197], precession [136,137], and dynesty [111].

Keywords

gr-qc
astro-ph.GA
astro-ph.IM

Access to Document

10.1103/PhysRevD.108.124045Licence: Creative Commons: Attribution (CC BY)

PrattenG2023PrecisionFinal published version, 13.6 MBLicence: Creative Commons: Attribution (CC BY)

2 Finished
2 Active

Probing the Nonlinear Dynamics of Compact Binaries with Gravitational Waves
Pratten, G. (Principal Investigator)
The Royal Society
1/10/22 → 30/09/27
Project: Research Councils
Gravitational wave science at the University of Birmingham
Martynov, D. (Co-Investigator), Schmidt, P. (Co-Investigator), Moore, C. (Co-Investigator), Speake, C. (Co-Investigator) & Vecchio, A. (Principal Investigator)
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY FACILITIES COUNCIL
1/10/21 → 30/09/25
Project: Research Councils
LISA Science Ground Segment Support 2022-2024
Vecchio, A. (Principal Investigator), McGee, S. (Co-Investigator) & Moore, C. (Co-Investigator)
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY FACILITIES COUNCIL
1/04/22 → 31/03/25
Project: Research Councils
LISA Ground segment support: period 01/09/2020 - 31/03/2021
Toonen, S. (Co-Investigator), McGee, S. (Co-Investigator), Moore, C. (Co-Investigator) & Vecchio, A. (Principal Investigator)
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY FACILITIES COUNCIL
1/09/20 → 31/03/21
Project: Research Councils

Cite this

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title = "Precision tracking of massive black hole spin evolution with LISA",

abstract = " The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) will play a vital role in constraining the origin and evolution of massive black holes throughout the Universe. In this study we use a waveform model (IMRPhenomXPHM) that includes both precession and higher multipoles, and full Bayesian inference to explore the accuracy to which LISA can constrain the binary parameters. We demonstrate that LISA will be able to track the evolution of the spins -- magnitude and orientation -- to percent accuracy, providing crucial information on the dynamics and evolution of massive black hole binaries and the galactic environment in which the merger takes place. Such accurate spin-tracking further allows LISA to measure the recoil velocity of the remnant black hole to better than 100kms−1 (90\% credibility) and its direction to a few degrees, which provides additional important astrophysical information on the post-merger association. Using a systematic suite of binaries, we showcase that the component masses will be measurable at the sub-percent level, the sky area can be constrained to within ΔΩ90≈0.01deg2, and the binary redshift to less than 0.01.",

keywords = "gr-qc, astro-ph.GA, astro-ph.IM",

author = "Geraint Pratten and Patricia Schmidt and Hannah Middleton and Alberto Vecchio",

note = "14+6 pages, 8 figures, fixed typo ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We thank Cl{\'e}ment Bonnerot and Jean-Baptiste Bayle for useful comments on the manuscript. G. P. gratefully acknowledges support from a Royal Society University Research Fellowship No. URF\R1\221500 and No. RF\ERE\221015. P. S. and G. P. acknowledge support from STFC Grant No. ST/V005677/1. H. M. and A. V. acknowledge the support of the UK Space Agency Grants No. ST/V002813/1 and No. ST/X002071/1. A. V. acknowledges the support of the Royal Society and Wolfson Foundation. Computations were performed on the University of Birmingham{\textquoteright}s high performance computing service BlueBEAR and the Bondi HPC Cluster at the Birmingham Institute for Gravitational Wave Astronomy. Parts of this analysis made use of numpy [194], matplotlib [195], scipy [196], getdist [197], precession [136,137], and dynesty [111].",

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month = dec,

day = "18",

doi = "10.1103/PhysRevD.108.124045",

language = "English",

volume = "108",

journal = "Physical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology",

issn = "1550-7998",

publisher = "American Physical Society (APS)",

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AU - Schmidt, Patricia

AU - Middleton, Hannah

AU - Vecchio, Alberto

N1 - 14+6 pages, 8 figures, fixed typo ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We thank Clément Bonnerot and Jean-Baptiste Bayle for useful comments on the manuscript. G. P. gratefully acknowledges support from a Royal Society University Research Fellowship No. URF\R1\221500 and No. RF\ERE\221015. P. S. and G. P. acknowledge support from STFC Grant No. ST/V005677/1. H. M. and A. V. acknowledge the support of the UK Space Agency Grants No. ST/V002813/1 and No. ST/X002071/1. A. V. acknowledges the support of the Royal Society and Wolfson Foundation. Computations were performed on the University of Birmingham’s high performance computing service BlueBEAR and the Bondi HPC Cluster at the Birmingham Institute for Gravitational Wave Astronomy. Parts of this analysis made use of numpy [194], matplotlib [195], scipy [196], getdist [197], precession [136,137], and dynesty [111].

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N2 - The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) will play a vital role in constraining the origin and evolution of massive black holes throughout the Universe. In this study we use a waveform model (IMRPhenomXPHM) that includes both precession and higher multipoles, and full Bayesian inference to explore the accuracy to which LISA can constrain the binary parameters. We demonstrate that LISA will be able to track the evolution of the spins -- magnitude and orientation -- to percent accuracy, providing crucial information on the dynamics and evolution of massive black hole binaries and the galactic environment in which the merger takes place. Such accurate spin-tracking further allows LISA to measure the recoil velocity of the remnant black hole to better than 100kms−1 (90\% credibility) and its direction to a few degrees, which provides additional important astrophysical information on the post-merger association. Using a systematic suite of binaries, we showcase that the component masses will be measurable at the sub-percent level, the sky area can be constrained to within ΔΩ90≈0.01deg2, and the binary redshift to less than 0.01.

AB - The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) will play a vital role in constraining the origin and evolution of massive black holes throughout the Universe. In this study we use a waveform model (IMRPhenomXPHM) that includes both precession and higher multipoles, and full Bayesian inference to explore the accuracy to which LISA can constrain the binary parameters. We demonstrate that LISA will be able to track the evolution of the spins -- magnitude and orientation -- to percent accuracy, providing crucial information on the dynamics and evolution of massive black hole binaries and the galactic environment in which the merger takes place. Such accurate spin-tracking further allows LISA to measure the recoil velocity of the remnant black hole to better than 100kms−1 (90\% credibility) and its direction to a few degrees, which provides additional important astrophysical information on the post-merger association. Using a systematic suite of binaries, we showcase that the component masses will be measurable at the sub-percent level, the sky area can be constrained to within ΔΩ90≈0.01deg2, and the binary redshift to less than 0.01.

KW - gr-qc

KW - astro-ph.GA

KW - astro-ph.IM

U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevD.108.124045

DO - 10.1103/PhysRevD.108.124045

M3 - Article

SN - 1550-7998

VL - 108

JO - Physical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology

JF - Physical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology

M1 - 124045

ER -

Precision tracking of massive black hole spin evolution with LISA

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

Access to Document

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Projects

Probing the Nonlinear Dynamics of Compact Binaries with Gravitational Waves

Gravitational wave science at the University of Birmingham

LISA Science Ground Segment Support 2022-2024

LISA Ground segment support: period 01/09/2020 - 31/03/2021

Cite this