Survey of gravitational wave memory in intermediate mass ratio binaries

Abstract

The non-linear gravitational wave (GW) memory effect is a distinct prediction in general relativity. While the effect has been well studied for comparable mass binaries, it has mostly been overlooked for intermediate mass ratio inspirals (IMRIs). We offer a comprehensive analysis of the phenomenology and detectability of memory effects, including contributions from subdominant harmonic modes, in heavy IMRIs consisting of a stellar mass black hole and an intermediate mass black hole. When formed through hierarchical mergers, for example when a GW190521-like remnant captures a stellar mass black hole, IMRI systems have a large total mass, large spin on the primary, and possibly residual eccentricity; features that potentially raise the prospect for memory detection. We compute both the displacement and spin non-linear GW memory from the $m\ne 0$ gravitational waveforms computed within a black hole perturbation theory framework that is partially calibrated to numerical relativity waveforms. We probe the dependence of memory effects on mass ratio, spin, and eccentricity and consider the detectability of a memory signal from IMRIs using current and future GW detectors. We find that (i) while eccentricity introduces additional features in both displacement and spin memory, it does not appreciatively change the prospects of detectability, (ii) including higher modes into the memory computation can increase singal-to-noise (SNR) values by about 7\% in some cases, (iii) the SNR from displacement memory dramatically increases as the spin approaches large, positive values, (iv) spin memory from heavy IMRIs would, however, be difficult to detect with future generation detectors even from highly spinning systems. Our results suggest that hierarchical binary black hole mergers may be a promising source for detecting memory and could favorably impact memory forecasts.

18 pages, 17 figures, matches the version published in PRD

References in corpus (25)

• GW190814: Gravitational Waves from the Coalescence of a 23 M${}_{\odot }$ Black Hole with a 2.6 M${}_{\odot }$ Compact Object
• GW190521: A Binary Black Hole Merger with a Total Mass of $150M_{\odot }$
• Exploring the Sensitivity of Next Generation Gravitational Wave Detectors
• Intermediate and Extreme Mass-Ratio Inspirals -- Astrophysics, Science Applications and Detection using LISA
• Observational evidence for intermediate-mass black holes
• Gravitational wave snapshots of generic extreme mass ratio inspirals
• A 400 solar mass black hole in the Ultraluminous X-ray source M82 X-1 accreting close to its Eddington limit
• The gravitational-wave memory effect
• A Highly Spinning and Aligned Binary Black Hole Merger in the Advanced LIGO First Observing Run
• Gravitational waveforms for compact binaries from second-order self-force theory
• Nonlinear gravitational-wave memory from binary black hole mergers
• Towards adiabatic waveforms for inspiral into Kerr black holes: I. A new model of the source for the time domain perturbation equation
• Eccentric binary black hole surrogate models for the gravitational waveform and remnant properties: comparable mass, nonspinning case
• Gravitational-wave energy flux for compact binaries through second order in the mass ratio
• Searching for gravitational wave memory bursts with the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array
• Towards adiabatic waveforms for inspiral into Kerr black holes: II. Dynamical sources and generic orbits
• Thanks for the memory: measuring gravitational-wave memory in the first LIGO/Virgo gravitational-wave transient catalog
• On the coexistence of stellar-mass and intermediate-mass black holes in globular clusters
• Adding Gravitational Memory to Waveform Catalogs using BMS Balance Laws
• Binary black hole merger gravitational waves and recoil in the large mass ratio limit
• Outlook for detecting the gravitational wave displacement and spin memory effects with current and future gravitational wave detectors
• Surrogate model for gravitational wave signals from non-spinning, comparable- to large-mass-ratio black hole binaries built on black hole perturbation theory waveforms calibrated to numerical relativity
• Can gravitational-wave memory help constrain binary black-hole parameters? A LISA case study
• Numerical-relativity validation of effective-one-body waveforms in the intermediate-mass-ratio regime
• Accurate calculation of gravitational wave memory

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Numerical relativity surrogate model with memory effects and post-Newtonian hybridization
• Gravitational memory: new results from post-Newtonian and self-force theory
• Waveform models for the gravitational-wave memory effect: Extreme mass-ratio limit and final memory offset