Inferring the Intermediate Mass Black Hole Number Density from Gravitational Wave Lensing Statistics

Abstract

The population properties of intermediate mass black holes remain largely unknown, and understanding their distribution could provide a missing link in the formation of supermassive black holes and galaxies. Gravitational wave observations can help fill in the gap from stellar mass black holes to supermassive black holes. In our work, we propose a new method for probing lens populations through lensing statistics of gravitational waves, here focusing on inferring the number density of intermediate mass black holes. Using hierarchical Bayesian inference of injected lensed gravitational waves, we find that existing gravitational wave observatories at design sensitivity could either identify an injected number density of $10^6{\mathrm{Mpc}}^{-3}$ or place an upper bound of $\lesssim 10^4{\mathrm{Mpc}}^{-3}$ for an injected $10^3{\mathrm{Mpc}}^{-3}$. More broadly, our method could be applied to probe other forms of compact matter as well.

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Cited by in corpus (4)

• Gravitational wave lensing as a probe of halo properties and dark matter
• Lensing of gravitational waves: universal signatures in the beating pattern
• Compact Binaries through a Lens: Silent vs. Detectable Microlensing for the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Gravitational Wave Observatories
• Weighing the Darkness III: How Gaia Could, but Probably Won't, Astrometrically Detect Free-Floating Black Holes