Spatial Correlation of Massive Black Hole Mergers: Probing the Formation Mechanism and Reionization

Abstract

We consider the spatial clustering of massive black hole (MBH) mergers, and discuss possible ways to use gravitational wave observations in the LISA and DECIGO/BBO range for obtaining cosmological and cosmogonical information. Constraints on large scale structure (LSS) and merger histories may be possible by detections of an alignment of the GW polarization direction with principal axes of the LSS. Constraints on the merger physics and the reionization epoch may be obtained by GW measurements of MBH correlation lengths, in the case when the MBH angular momentum loss occurs through gas drag. Such measurements would provide information about the LSS and the reionization epoch, additional to and independent of any obtained from electromagnetic signals, as well as about the astrophysics of MBH mergers.

14 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

References in corpus (6)

• The Afterglow of Massive Black Hole Coalescence
• The Discovery of Primeval Large-Scale Structures with Forming Clusters at Redshift 6
• A Size of ~10 Mpc for the Ionized Bubbles at the End of Cosmic Reionization
• Radio Afterglows of Gamma-Ray Bursts and Hypernovae at High Redshift, and their Potential for 21-cm Absorption Studies
• A New Algorithm for the Detection of Inter-cluster Galaxy Filaments using Galaxy Orientation Alignments
• Did WMAP see Moving Local Structures?

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Second Order Quasi-Normal Mode of the Schwarzschild Black Hole
• Second and higher-order quasi-normal modes in binary black hole mergers