Low-Frequency Gravitational Waves from Massive Black Hole Binaries: Predictions for LISA and Pulsar Timing Arrays

By J. Stuart B. Wyithe, Abraham Loeb. 2002

287 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The coalescence of massive black hole (BH) binaries due to galaxy mergers provides a primary source of low-frequency gravitational radiation detectable by pulsar timing measurements and by the proposed the Laser Interferometry Space Antenna (LISA) observatory. We compute the expected gravitational radiation signal from sources at all redshifts by combining the predicted merger rate of galactic halos with recent measurements of the relation between BH mass, MBH, and the velocity dispersion of its host galaxy, σ. Our main findings are as follows: (1) the nHz frequency background is dominated by BH binaries at redshifts z ≲ 2, and existing limits from pulsar timing data place tight constraints on the allowed normalization and power-law slope of the MBH-σ relation or on the fraction of BH binaries that proceed to coalescence; (2) more than half of all discrete mHz massive BH sources detectable by LISA are likely to originate at redshifts z ≳ 7; (3) the number of LISA sources per unit redshift per year should drop substantially after reionization as long as BH formation is triggered by gas cooling in galaxies. Studies of the highest redshift sources among the few hundred detectable events per year will provide unique information about the physics and history of black hole growth in galaxies.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/c41e0f6d7005cfea990a0773b7bba419ade91ce4

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. L. Hernquist
2. M. Volonteri
3. Volker Springel
4. A. Sesana
5. P. Hopkins
6. M. McQuinn
7. Volker Bromm
8. A. Ferrara

Citations in the corpus

• Supermassive black holes in elliptical galaxies: switching from very bright to very dim (2005, background): “…by many authors using different assumptions (e.g. Binney & Tabor 1995; Silk & Rees 1998; Ciotti & Ostriker 2001; Cavaliere, Lapi & Menci 2002; Wyithe & Loeb 2003; Granato et al. 2004; Murray, Quataert & Thompson 2005; Sazonov et al. 2005; Springel, Di Matteo & Hernquist 2005, Begelman &…”
• Detecting the Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background Using Pulsar Timing (2005, unknown): “The vertical lines bound the values ofA expected by models of the GW background (Jaffe & Backer 2003; Wyithe & Loeb 2003; Enoki et al. 2004).”
• The first stars: formation of binaries and small multiple systems (2009, background): “Previous studies have already explored the possibility of GW detection of MBH binaries formed through halo mergers during early structure formation (e.g. Wyithe & Loeb 2003; Sesana et al. 2005).”
• Gravitational waves from resolvable massive black hole binary systems and observations with Pulsar Timing Arrays (2008, background): “Popular scenarios of MBH formation and evolution (e.g. Volonteri, Haardt & Madau 2003; Wyithe & Loeb 2003, Koushiappas & Zentner 2006, Malbon et al. 2007, Yoo et al. 2007) predict the existence of a large number of massive black hole binaries (MBHB) emitting in the frequency range between ∼ 10−9 Hz…”
• Wave Effects in the Gravitational Lensing of Gravitational Waves from Chirping Binaries (2003, background): “Recently, Wyithe & Loeb (2003) suggested that some hundreds of detectable events per year could be expected, considering the merger rate at exceedingly high redshift (z > 5–10).”
• Systematic investigation of the expected gravitational wave signal from supermassive black hole binaries in the pulsar timing band (2012, methodology): “Inspiralling supermassive black hole (SMBH) binaries populating merging galaxies throughout the Universe are expected to generate the dominant signal in this frequency band (see, e.g. Rajagopal & Romani 1995; Jaffe & Backer 2003; Wyithe & Loeb 2003; Sesana et al. 2008).”
• The imprint of massive black hole formation models on the LISA data stream (2007, background): “…(MBHBs) are among the primary candidate sources of gravitational waves (GWs) at mHz frequencies (see, e.g., Haehnelt 1994; Jaffe & Backer 2003; Wyithe & Loeb 2003, Sesana et al. 2004, Sesana et al. 2005), the range probed by the space-based Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA, Bender et…”
• Expected properties of the first gravitational wave signal detected with pulsar timing arrays (2015, result): “The black thick line gives the mean hc over all realisations at each frequency bin, which is consistent with previous predictions for the amplitude of the GWB (Rajagopal & Romani 1995; Wyithe & Loeb 2003; Sesana et al. 2008; Rosado 2011; Ravi et al. 2015).”
• The stochastic gravitational-wave background from massive black hole binary systems: implications for observations with Pulsar Timing Arrays (2008, methodology): “Massive black hole (MBH) binary systems with masses in the range range ∼ 104 − 1010 M⊙ are amongst the primary candidate sources of gravitational waves (GWs) at ∼ nHz - mHz frequencies (see, e.g., Haehnelt 1994; Jaffe & Backer 2003; Wyithe & Loeb 2003, Sesana et al. 2004, Sesana et al. 2005).”
• EFFICIENT MERGER OF BINARY SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLES IN MERGING GALAXIES (2011, methodology): “…for LISA is to equate the binary SMBH coalescence rate with the galaxy merger rate, the latter derived from models of structure formation in which galaxies merge hierarchically (Haehnelt 1994; Menou, Haiman & Narayanan 2001; Volonteri, Haardt & Madau 2003; Wyithe & Loeb 2003; Jaffe & Backer 2003).”
• Arecibo Pulsar Survey Using ALFA. I. Survey Strategy and First Discoveries (2005, background): “MSPs with ultrastable spin rates can be used as detectors of long-period (& years) gravitational waves (e.g., Lommen & Backer 2001; Wyithe & Loeb 2003; Jenet et al. 2004), while sub-millisecond pulsars (if they exist) probeth equation of state of matter at densities significantly higher than in…”
• The NANOGrav 15 yr Data Set: Evidence for a Gravitational-wave Background (2023, background): “…SMBHBs, with masses 108–1010M ) emit GWs with slowly evolving frequencies, contributing to a noiselike broadband signal in the nHz range (the GW background, GWB; Rajagopal & Romani 1995; Jaffe & Backer 2003; Wyithe & Loeb 2003; Sesana et al. 2004; McWilliams et al. 2014; Burke-Spolaor et al. 2019).”
• Massive Black Hole Binary Mergers in Dynamical Galactic Environments (2016, background): “Two of the earliest examples are Wyithe & Loeb (2003)—who use analytic mass functions (Press & Schechter 1974) with observed merger rates (Lacey & Cole 1993), and Jaffe & Backer (2003)—who use observationally derived galaxy mass functions, pair fractions, and merger time-scales.”