Inferring the Intermediate-mass Black Hole Number Density from Gravitational-wave Lensing Statistics
| Autor: | Joseph Gais, Ken K. Y. Ng, Eungwang Seo, Kaze W. K. Wong, Tjonnie G. F. Li |
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| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2022 |
| Předmět: |
Science & Technology
Astrophysics::High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena SHADOW FOS: Physical sciences Astronomy and Astrophysics Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) BINARY Astronomy & Astrophysics General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology Space and Planetary Science SEARCH Physical Sciences DARK-MATTER LIGO PROBE |
| Popis: | 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 with masses between ∼100–104 M ⊙. In our work, we propose a new method for examining lens populations through lensing statistics of gravitational waves, here focusing on inferring the number density of intermediate-mass black holes through hierarchical Bayesian inference. Simulating ∼200 lensed gravitational-wave signals, we find that existing gravitational-wave observatories at their design sensitivity could either constrain the number density of 106 Mpc−3 within a factor of 10, or place an upper bound of ≲104 Mpc−3 if the true number density is 103 Mpc−3. More broadly, our method leaves room for incorporation of additional lens populations, providing a general framework for probing the population properties of lenses in the universe. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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