Constraining the Black Hole Mass Spectrum with LISA Observations II: Direct comparison of detailed models

Abstract

A number of scenarios have been proposed for the origin of the supermassive black holes (SMBHs) that are found in the centres of most galaxies. Many such scenarios predict a high-redshift population of massive black holes (MBHs), with masses in the range 100 to 100000 times that of the Sun. When the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) is finally operational, it is likely that it will detect on the order of 100 of these MBH binaries as they merge. The differences between proposed population models produce appreciable effects in the portion of the population which is detectable by LISA, so it is likely that the LISA observations will allow us to place constraints on them. However, gravitational wave detectors such as LISA will not be able to detect all such mergers nor assign precise black hole parameters to the merger, due to weak gravitational wave signal strengths. This paper explores LISA's ability to distinguish between several MBH population models. In this way, we go beyond predicting a LISA observed population and consider the extent to which LISA observations could inform astrophysical modellers. The errors in LISA parameter estimation are applied with a direct method which generates random sample parameters for each source in a population realisation. We consider how the distinguishability varies depending on the choice of source parameters (1 or 2 parameters chosen from masses, redshift or spins) used to characterise the model distributions, with confidence levels determined by 1 and 2-dimensional tests based on the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test.

32 pages, 21 Figures, 6 Tables; Submitted to MNRAS

References in corpus (14)

• Monitoring stellar orbits around the Massive Black Hole in the Galactic Center
• Measuring Distance and Properties of the Milky Way's Central Supermassive Black Hole with Stellar Orbits
• Formation of Supermassive Black Holes by Direct Collapse in Pregalactic Halos
• Use and Abuse of the Fisher Information Matrix in the Assessment of Gravitational-Wave Parameter-Estimation Prospects
• Cosmological black hole spin evolution by mergers and accretion
• The Assembly of Supermassive Black Holes at High Redshifts
• The imprint of massive black hole formation models on the LISA data stream
• Reconstructing the massive black hole cosmic history through gravitational waves
• Massive Black Hole Binary Inspirals: Results from the LISA Parameter Estimation Taskforce
• Localizing coalescing massive black hole binaries with gravitational waves
• The Effect of Higher Harmonic Corrections on the Detection of massive black hole binaries with LISA
• Constraining properties of the black hole population using LISA
• Gravitational Wave Signal from Assembling the Lightest Supermassive Black Holes
• Constraining the Black Hole Mass Spectrum with Gravitational Wave Observations I: The Error Kernel

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Science with the space-based interferometer eLISA. I: Supermassive black hole binaries
• Testing General Relativity with Low-Frequency, Space-Based Gravitational-Wave Detectors
• Massive black hole merger rates: the effect of kpc separation wandering and supernova feedback
• Probing Massive Black Hole Binary Populations with LISA
• Gravitational wave emission from binary supermassive black holes
• Effects of post-Newtonian Spin Alignment on the Distribution of Black-Hole Recoils
• The lifetime of binary black holes in Sérsic galaxy models
• Implications of the pulsar timing array detections for massive black hole mergers in the LISA band
• Massive Black Hole Science with eLISA
• A practical guide to the massive black hole cosmic history