Gravitational-wave sources from mergers of binary black-holes catalyzed by fly-bys interactions in the field

Abstract

Several scenarios were suggested for the origins of gravitational-wave (GW) sources from mergers of stellar binary black holes (BBHs). Here we propose a novel origin through catalyzed formation of GW-sources from ultra-wide binaries in the field. Such binaries experience perturbations from random stellar fly-bys which excite their eccentricities. Once a wide-binary is driven to a sufficiently small peri-center approach, GW-emission becomes significant, and the binary inspirals and merges. We derive an analytic model and verify it with numerical calculation to compute the merger rate to be $\sim 10\times {\mathrm{f}}_{\mathrm{wide}}{\mathrm{Gpc}}^{-3}\mathrm{y}{\mathrm{r}}^{-1}$ ($f_{\mathrm{wide}}$ is the fraction of wide BH-binaries), which is comparable to the observationally inferred rate. The observational signatures from this channel include spin-orbit misalignment; preference for high mass-ratio BBH; preference for high velocity-dispersion host-galaxies; and a uniform delay-time distribution.

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