Prospects for intermediate mass black hole binary searches with advanced gravitational-wave detectors

G. Mazzolo, F. Salemi, M. Drago, V. Necula, C. Pankow, G. A. Prodi, V. Re, V. Tiwari, G. Vedovato, I. Yakushin, and S. Klimenko
Phys. Rev. D 90, 063002 – Published 10 September 2014

Abstract

We estimated the sensitivity of the upcoming advanced ground-based gravitational-wave observatories (the LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA interferometers) to coalescing intermediate mass black hole binaries (IMBHB). We added waveforms modeling the gravitational radiation emitted by IMBHBs to simulated data from detectors and searched for the injected signals with the coherent WaveBurst algorithm. The tested parameter space of the binaries covers nonspinning IMBHBs with source-frame total masses between 50 and 1050M and mass ratios between 1/6 and 1. We found that advanced detectors could be sensitive to these systems up to a range of a few Gpc. A theoretical model was adopted to estimate the expected observation rates, yielding up to a few tens of events per year. Thus, our results indicate that advanced detectors will have a reasonable chance to collect the first direct evidence for intermediate mass black holes and to open a new, intriguing channel for probing the Universe over cosmological scales.

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  • Received 8 May 2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.90.063002

© 2014 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

G. Mazzolo1,2, F. Salemi1,2, M. Drago3,4, V. Necula5, C. Pankow6, G. A. Prodi3,4, V. Re7, V. Tiwari5, G. Vedovato8, I. Yakushin9, and S. Klimenko5

  • 1Albert-Einstein-Institut, Max-Planck-Institut für Gravitationsphysik, D-30167 Hannover, Germany
  • 2Leibniz Universität Hannover, D-30167 Hannover, Germany
  • 3Università di Trento, I-38123 Trento, Italy
  • 4INFN, TIFPA, Trento, Italy
  • 5University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611, USA
  • 6University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53201, USA
  • 7INFN, Sezione di Roma Tor Vergata and Università di Roma Tor Vergata, I-00133 Roma, Italy
  • 8INFN, Sezione di Padova and Università di Padova, I-35131 Padova, Italy
  • 9LIGO-Livingston Observatory, Livingston, Louisiana 70754, USA

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Issue

Vol. 90, Iss. 6 — 15 September 2014

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