ESIGMAHM: An Eccentric, Spinning inspiral-merger-ringdown waveform model with Higher Modes for the detection and characterization of binary black holes

• Published in: arXiv.org 2024-09
• Main Authors: Kaushik, Paul, Maurya, Akash, Henry, Quentin, Sharma, Kartikey, Satheesh, Pranav, Divyajyoti, Kumar, Prayush, Mishra, Chandra Kant
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Circular orbits; Eccentric orbits; Mass ratios; Numerical relativity; Perturbation theory; Relativity; Searching; Signal generation; Waveforms
• ISSN: 2331-8422

We present a time-domain inspiral-merger-ringdowm (IMR) waveform model ESIGMAHM constructed within a framework we named ESIGMA for coalescing binaries of spinning black holes on moderately eccentric orbits (Huerta et al. (2018) [Phys. Rev. D 97, 024031]). We now include the effect of black hole spins on the dynamics of eccentric binaries, as well as model sub-dominant waveform harmonics emitted by them. The inspiral evolution is described by a consistent combination of latest results from post-Newtonian theory, self-force, and black hole perturbation theory. We assume that these moderately eccentric binaries radiate away most of their orbital eccentricity before merger, and seamlessly connect the eccentric inspiral with a numerical relativity based surrogate waveform model for mergers of spinning binaries on quasi-circular orbits. We validate ESIGMAHM against eccentric Numerical Relativity simulations, and also against contemporary effective-one-body and phenomenological models in the quasi-circular limit. We find that ESIGMAHM achieves match values greater than \(99\%\) for quasi-circular spin-aligned binaries with mass ratios up to \(8\), and above \(97\%\) for non-spinning and spinning eccentric systems with small or positively aligned spins. Using IMRESIGMA, we quantify the impact of orbital eccentricity on GW signals, showing that next-generation detectors can detect eccentric sources up to \(10\%\) louder than quasi-circular ones. We also show that current templated LIGO-Virgo searches will lose more than \(10\%\) of optimal SNR for about \(20\%\) of all eccentric sources by using only quasi-circular waveform templates. The same will result in a \(25\%\) loss in detection rate for eccentric sources with mass ratios \(m_1/m_2\geq 4\). Our results highlight the need for including eccentricity and higher-order modes in GW source models and searches for asymmetric eccentric BBH signals.