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Related papers: Consistent eccentricities for gravitational wave a…

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Eccentricity and spin precession are key observables in gravitational-wave astronomy, encoding precious information about the astrophysical formation of compact binaries together with fine details of the relativistic two-body problem.…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2026-01-05 Isobel M. Romero-Shaw , Davide Gerosa , Nicholas Loutrel

While the orbital eccentricity is a key feature of the gravitational two-body problem, providing an unambiguous definition in general relativity poses significant challenges. Despite such foundational issue, the eccentricity of binary black…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2025-01-08 Matteo Boschini , Nicholas Loutrel , Davide Gerosa , Giulia Fumagalli

While the expectation is that the majority of gravitational wave events observable by ground-based detectors will be emitted by compact binaries in quasi-circular orbits, the growing number of detections suggests the possibility of…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2020-12-02 Blake Moore , Nicolás Yunes

When binary black holes form in the field, it is expected that their orbits typically circularize before coalescence. In galactic nuclei and globular clusters, binary black holes can form dynamically. Recent results suggest that…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2018-11-13 Marcus E. Lower , Eric Thrane , Paul D. Lasky , Rory Smith

Building initial conditions for generic binary black-hole evolutions without initial spurious eccentricity remains a challenge for numerical-relativity simulations. This problem can be overcome by applying an eccentricity-removal procedure…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2015-03-17 Alessandra Buonanno , Lawrence E. Kidder , Abdul H. Mroué , Harald P. Pfeiffer , Andrea Taracchini

Simulation of quasicircular compact binaries is a major goal in numerical relativity, as they are expected to constitute most gravitational wave observations. However, given that orbital eccentricity is not well-defined in general…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2024-10-10 Sarah Habib , Mark Scheel , Saul Teukolsky

Numerical relativity simulations provide a full description of the dynamics of binary systems, including gravitational radiation. The waveforms produced by these simulations have a number of applications in gravitational-wave detection and…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2025-10-09 Taylor Knapp , Katerina Chatziioannou , Keefe Mitman , Mark A. Scheel , Michael Boyle , Lawrence E. Kidder , Harald Pfeiffer

Coalescing supermassive black hole binaries (BHBs) are expected to be the loudest sources of gravitational waves (GWs) in the Universe. Detection rates for ground or space-based detectors based on cosmological simulations and semi-analytic…

Next generation ground-based gravitational wave (GW) detectors are expected to detect $\sim 10^4 \mbox{-} 10^5$ binary black holes (BBHs) per year. Understanding the formation pathways of these binaries is an open question. Orbital…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2024-01-24 Pankaj Saini

Most gravitational wave (GW) events observed by the LIGO and Virgo detectors are consistent with mergers of binary black holes (BBHs) on quasi-circular orbits. However, some events are also consistent with non-zero orbital eccentricity,…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2024-02-23 Divyajyoti , Sumit Kumar , Snehal Tibrewal , Isobel M. Romero-Shaw , Chandra Kant Mishra

The detection of gravitational-wave signals from coalescing eccentric binary black holes would yield unprecedented information about the formation and evolution of compact binaries in specific scenarios, such as dynamical formation in dense…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2021-06-09 Yoshinta Setyawati , Frank Ohme

Binaries of supermassive black holes (MBHBs) represent the primary sources of the gravitational wave background (GWB) detectable by Pulsar Timing Arrays (PTAs). The eccentricity with which binaries form in galactic mergers is the key…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2026-01-06 Alessia Gualandris , Justin Read , Federica Fastidio , Julian Chan , Thibaut François , Nader Khonji , Walter Dehnen

We describe and study an instantaneous definition of eccentricity to be applied at the initial moment of full numerical simulations of binary black holes. The method consists of evaluating the eccentricity at the moment of maximum…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2022-11-30 Alessandro Ciarfella , James Healy , Carlos O. Lousto , Hiroyuki Nakano

The development of eccentric waveform models enables us to explore the growing catalog of gravitational-wave events with measurable eccentricity. This opens new opportunities to gain insight into the formation channels and evolutionary…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2026-05-15 Muhammad Zeeshan , Richard O'Shaughnessy , Natalie Malagon

We introduce a method to quantify the initial eccentricity, gravitational wave frequency, and mean anomaly of numerical relativity simulations that describe non-spinning black holes on moderately eccentric orbits. We demonstrate that this…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2019-08-14 Sarah Habib , E. A. Huerta

Pair instability supernovae are thought to restrict the formation of black holes in the mass range ~50 - 135 solar masses. However, black holes with masses within this "high mass gap" are expected to form as the remnants of binary black…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2020-11-11 Isobel M. Romero-Shaw , Paul D. Lasky , Eric Thrane , Juan Calderon Bustillo

The observation of gravitational waves from merging black holes and neutron stars provides a unique opportunity to discern information about their astrophysical environment. Two signatures that are considered powerful tracers to distinguish…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2026-03-18 Gonzalo Morras , Geraint Pratten , Patricia Schmidt

Binary black holes (BBHs) in eccentric orbits produce distinct modulations in gravitational waves (GWs); measuring orbital eccentricity provides evidence for dynamical binary formation channels. We analyze 57 GW events from the…

The orbital eccentricity of a merging binary black hole leaves an imprint on the associated gravitational-wave signal that can reveal whether the binary formed in isolation or in a dynamical environment, such as the core of a dense star…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2021-11-17 Isobel M. Romero-Shaw , Paul D. Lasky , Eric Thrane

We show that the gravitational waveform emitted by a binary on an eccentric orbit can be naturally decomposed into a series of harmonics. The frequencies of these harmonics depend upon the radial frequency, $f_{\mathrm{r}}$, determined by…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2024-11-08 Ben G. Patterson , Sharon Mary Tomson , Stephen Fairhurst