Measuring parameters of massive black hole binaries with partially aligned spins

Abstract

The future space-based gravitational wave detector LISA will be able to measure parameters of coalescing massive black hole binaries, often to extremely high accuracy. Previous work has demonstrated that the black hole spins can have a strong impact on the accuracy of parameter measurement. Relativistic spin-induced precession modulates the waveform in a manner which can break degeneracies between parameters, in principle significantly improving how well they are measured. Recent studies have indicated, however, that spin precession may be weak for an important subset of astrophysical binary black holes: those in which the spins are aligned due to interactions with gas. In this paper, we examine how well a binary's parameters can be measured when its spins are partially aligned and compare results using waveforms that include higher post-Newtonian harmonics to those that are truncated at leading quadrupole order. We find that the weakened precession can substantially degrade parameter estimation. This degradation is particularly devastating for the extrinsic parameters sky position and distance. Absent higher harmonics, LISA typically localizes the sky position of a nearly aligned binary a factor of $\sim 6$ less accurately than for one in which the spin orientations are random. Our knowledge of a source's sky position will thus be worst for the gas-rich systems which are most likely to produce electromagnetic counterparts. Fortunately, higher harmonics of the waveform can make up for this degradation. By including harmonics beyond the quadrupole in our waveform model, we find that the accuracy with which most of the binary's parameters are measured can be substantially improved. In some cases, parameters can be measured as well in partially aligned binaries as they can be when the binary spins are random.

18 pages, 16 figures, version accepted by PRD (with improved distributions of partially aligned spins)

References in corpus (16)

• Massive black hole binary mergers within sub-pc scale gas discs
• Alignment of the spins of supermassive black holes prior to coalescence
• The imprint of massive black hole formation models on the LISA data stream
• Self consistent model for the evolution of eccentric massive black hole binaries in stellar environments: implications for gravitational wave observations
• A Solution to the Galactic Foreground Problem for LISA
• Binary black hole late inspiral: Simulations for gravitational wave observations
• Localizing coalescing massive black hole binaries with gravitational waves
• LISACode : A scientific simulator of LISA
• Reaction of Accretion Disks to Abrupt Mass Loss During Binary Black Hole Merger
• LISA observations of supermassive black holes: parameter estimation using full post-Newtonian inspiral waveforms
• The Effect of Higher Harmonic Corrections on the Detection of massive black hole binaries with LISA
• MCMC Exploration of Supermassive Black Hole Binary Inspirals
• Higher harmonics increase LISA's mass reach for supermassive black holes
• Catching Super Massive Black Hole Binaries Without a Net
• Parameter estimation for coalescing massive binary black holes with LISA using the full 2-post-Newtonian gravitational waveform and spin-orbit precession
• Characterizing Spinning Black Hole Binaries in Eccentric Orbits with LISA

Cited by in corpus (42)

• Science with the space-based interferometer eLISA. I: Supermassive black hole binaries
• Gravitational Wave Tests of General Relativity with Ground-Based Detectors and Pulsar Timing Arrays
• The evolution of massive black holes and their spins in their galactic hosts
• Intermediate mass black holes in AGN disks II. Model predictions & observational constraints
• Degeneracy between mass and spin in black-hole-binary waveforms
• Directly comparing GW150914 with numerical solutions of Einstein's equations for binary black hole coalescence
• Multi-timescale analysis of phase transitions in precessing black-hole binaries
• Compact binary systems in scalar-tensor gravity. II. Tensor gravitational waves to second post-Newtonian order
• Gravitational waves from BH-NS binaries: Effective Fisher matrices and parameter estimation using higher harmonics
• Preliminary study on parameter estimation accuracy of supermassive black hole binary inspirals for TianQin
• Spin-Precession: Breaking the Black Hole--Neutron Star Degeneracy
• Ripple effects & oscillations in the broad FeKa line as a probe of massive black hole mergers
• Parameter Estimation of Gravitational Waves from Precessing BH-NS Inspirals with higher harmonics
• Fast Frequency-domain Waveforms for Spin-Precessing Binary Inspirals
• Precession during merger 1: Strong polarization changes are observationally accessible features of strong-field gravity during binary black hole merger
• Advanced LIGO's ability to detect apparent violations of the cosmic censorship conjecture and the no-hair theorem through compact binary coalescence detections
• Detection and Parameter Estimation of Gravitational Waves from Compact Binary Inspirals with Analytical Double-Precessing Templates
• Gravitational Waveforms for Precessing, Quasi-circular Binaries via Multiple Scale Analysis and Uniform Asymptotics: The Near Spin Alignment Case
• Parameter Estimation of Gravitational Waves from Nonprecessing BH-NS Inspirals with higher harmonics: Comparing MCMC posteriors to an Effective Fisher Matrix
• Can gravitational-wave memory help constrain binary black-hole parameters? A LISA case study
• Subtracting Compact Binary Foregrounds to Search for Subdominant Gravitational-Wave Backgrounds in Next-Generation Ground-Based Observatories
• Distinguishing black-hole spin-orbit resonances by their gravitational wave signatures. II: Full parameter estimation
• Numerical simulations of black-hole binaries and gravitational wave emission
• Wide-Field InfraRed Survey Telescope (WFIRST) Mission and Synergies with LISA and LIGO-Virgo
• Sky localization of complete inspiral-merger-ringdown signals for nonspinning massive black hole binaries
• Gravitational Waveforms for Precessing, Quasicircular Compact Binaries with Multiple Scale Analysis: Small Spin Expansion
• Systematic challenges for future gravitational wave measurements of precessing binary black holes
• Massive Black Hole Science with eLISA
• Is J enough? Comparison of gravitational waves emitted along the total angular momentum direction with other preferred orientations
• Testing General Relativity with LISA including Spin Precession and Higher Harmonics in the Waveform
• Low Latency Detection of Massive Black Hole Binaries
• Synergy between ground and space based gravitational wave detectors II: Localisation
• Compact binary coalescence parameter estimations for 2.5 post-Newtonian aligned spinning waveforms
• Probing evolution of binaries influenced by the spin-orbit resonances
• Dynamics and spin alignment in massive, gravito-turbulent circumbinary discs around supermassive black hole binaries
• Rapid gravitational wave parameter estimation with a single spin: Systematic uncertainties in parameter estimation with the SpinTaylorF2 approximation
• Constraining the host galaxy halos of massive black holes from LISA event rates
• The Contribution Of Outer HI Disks To The Merging Binary Black Hole Population
• Precessing Binary Black Holes as Better Dark Sirens
• Menus for Feeding Black Holes
• Analytical model of precessing binaries using post-Newtonian theory in the extreme mass-ratio limit I: General Formalism
• Extracting the orbital axis from gravitational waves of precessing binary systems