Low-Frequency Gravitational Radiation from Coalescing Massive Black Holes

Abstract

We compute the expected low-frequency gravitational wave signal from coalescing massive black hole (MBH) binaries at the center of galaxies. We follow the merging history of halos and associated holes via cosmological Monte Carlo realizations of the merger hierarchy from early times to the present in a LCDM cosmology. MBHs get incorporated through a series of mergers into larger and larger halos, sink to the centre owing to dynamical friction, accrete a fraction of the gas in the merger remnant to become more massive, and form a binary system. Stellar dynamical processes dominates the orbital evolution of the binary at large separations, while gravitational wave emission takes over at small radii, causing the final coalescence of the system. We discuss the observability of inspiraling MBH binaries by a low-frequency gravitational wave experiment such as the planned Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), discriminating between resolvable sources and unresolved confusion noise. Over a 3-year observing period LISA should resolve this GWB into discrete sources, detecting ~90 individual events above a S/N=5 confidence level, while expected confusion noise is well below planned LISA capabilities.

arXiv comment6 pages, 4 figures, proceeding of "5th LISA Symposium", Noordwijk, 12-15 July 2004, to appear as special issue article in Classical and Quantum Gravity

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• Post-Newtonian Dynamics in Dense Star Clusters: Binary Black Holes in the LISA Band
• LISA sources from young massive and open stellar clusters
• Merging Hierarchical Triple Black Hole Systems with Intermediate-mass Black Holes in Population III Star Clusters
• Radio pulsars: testing gravity and detecting gravitational waves
• Distortion of Gravitational-Wave Packets Due to their Self-Gravity