On the Assembly Rate of Highly Eccentric Binary Black Hole Mergers
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
In this Letter we calculate the fraction of highly eccentric binary black hole (BBH) mergers resulting from binary-single interactions. Using an N-body code that includes post-Newtonian correction terms, we show that ≳1% of all BBH mergers resulting from this channel will have an eccentricity e > 0.1 when coming into the LIGO frequency band. As the majority of BBH mergers forming in globular clusters are assembled through three-body encounters, we suggest that such interactions are likely to dominate the population of high-eccentricity BBH mergers detectable by LIGO. The relative frequency of highly eccentric events could eventually help to constrain the astrophysical origin of BBH mergers.
Original language | English |
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Article number | L14 |
Journal | Astrophysical Journal Letters |
Volume | 840 |
Issue number | 2 |
Number of pages | 4 |
ISSN | 2041-8205 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 10 May 2017 |
Externally published | Yes |
- gravitational waves, stars: black holes, stars: kinematics and dynamics
Research areas
ID: 236271846