Black Hole Mergers from Hierarchical Triples in Dense Star Clusters

Hierarchical triples are expected to be produced by the frequent binary-mediated interactions in the cores of globular clusters. In some of these triples, the tertiary companion can drive the inner binary to merger following large eccentricity oscillations, as a result of the eccentric Kozai–Lidov m...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Astrophysical journal 2020-11, Vol.903 (1), p.67
Main Authors: Martinez, Miguel A. S., Fragione, Giacomo, Kremer, Kyle, Chatterjee, Sourav, Rodriguez, Carl L., Samsing, Johan, Ye, Claire S., Weatherford, Newlin C., Zevin, Michael, Naoz, Smadar, Rasio, Frederic A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Astrophysical black holes
Astrophysics
Black holes
Companion stars
Eccentricity
Globular clusters
Globular star clusters
Gravitation
Gravitational wave astronomy
Gravitational wave detectors
Gravitational wave sources
Gravitational waves
Interferometers
Milky Way
Space missions
Star clusters
Stars & galaxies
Stellar mass black holes
System effectiveness
Trinary stars
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Hierarchical triples are expected to be produced by the frequent binary-mediated interactions in the cores of globular clusters. In some of these triples, the tertiary companion can drive the inner binary to merger following large eccentricity oscillations, as a result of the eccentric Kozai–Lidov mechanism. In this paper, we study the dynamics and merger rates of black hole (BH) hierarchical triples, formed via binary–binary encounters in the CMC Cluster Catalog , a suite of cluster simulations with present-day properties representative of the Milky Way’s globular clusters. We compare the properties of the mergers from triples to the other merger channels in dense star clusters, and show that triple systems do not produce significant differences in terms of mass and effective spin distribution. However, they represent an important pathway for forming eccentric mergers, which could be detected by LIGO–Virgo/KAGRA (LVK), and future missions such as LISA and the DECi-hertz Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory. We derive a conservative lower limit for the merger rate from this channel of 0.35 Gpc −3 yr −1 in the local universe and up to ∼ 9 % of these events may have a detectable eccentricity at LVK design sensitivity. Additionally, we find that triple systems could play an important role in retaining second-generation BHs, which can later merge again in the core of the host cluster.
ISSN:0004-637X
1538-4357
DOI:10.3847/1538-4357/abba25