黑洞交会的引力波探测

Globular clusters and galactic nuclei contain very dense stellar-mass black holes (BHs), and when two BHs approach each other, they could form highly eccentric orbits and emit gravitational waves (GWs). The detection of such signals will contribute to further research on BH physics and enhance our understanding of BH populations. However, such a GW source has not yet been detected and has not been widely considered in the current study. Therefore, it is important to research its detectability. Based on the numerical relativistic simulation, a recent study has given accurate waveforms for parabolic BH encounters. Using the GW burst search tool Minke, a large-scale data set is produced in the two-parameter spaces of total mass and distance, and the detection range was quantitatively calculated. The result shows that BH encounter is a potential candidate for current ground-based detectors. Finally, a focus question that how to distinguish the BH capture from a binary BH merger is discussed. Using the posterior distributions of the signal under the two samplers, a distinguishing method is proposed. By comparing different posteriors, it is found that there is a significant difference in the merger time t0of the BH capture and binary BH merger signal, which contributes to distinguishing the two GW sources.