LISA observations of massive black hole mergers: event rates and issues in waveform modelling

Abstract

The observability of gravitational waves from supermassive and intermediate-mass black holes by the forthcoming Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), and the physics we can learn from the observations, will depend on two basic factors: the event rates for massive black hole mergers occurring in the LISA best sensitivity window and our theoretical knowledge of the gravitational waveforms. We first provide a concise review of the literature on LISA event rates for massive black hole mergers, as predicted by different formation scenarios. Then we discuss what (in our view) are the most urgent issues to address in terms of waveform modelling. For massive black hole binary inspiral, these include spin precession, eccentricity, the effect of high-order post-Newtonian terms in the amplitude and phase and an accurate prediction of the transition from inspiral to plunge. For black hole ringdown, numerical relativity will ultimately be required to determine the relative quasinormal mode excitation and to reduce the dimensionality of the template space in matched filtering.