Spin-induced Quadrupole Research Articles

Probing the spin-induced quadrupole moment of massive black holes with the inspiral of binary black holes

Probing the spin-induced quadrupole moment of massive black holes with the inspiral of binary black holes

Probing spin-induced quadrupole moments in precessing compact binaries

Probing spin-induced quadrupole moments in precessing compact binaries

Effect of double spin-precession and higher harmonics on spin-induced quadrupole moment measurements

Effect of double spin-precession and higher harmonics on spin-induced quadrupole moment measurements

Generalized Carter constant for quadrupolar test bodies in Kerr spacetime

We establish the existence of a deformation of the usual Carter constant which is conserved along the motion in a fixed Kerr background of a spinning test body possessing the spin-induced quadrupole coupling of a black hole. The conservation holds perturbatively up to second order in the test body’s spin. This constant of motion is obtained through the explicit resolution of the conservation constraint equations, employing covariant algebraic and differential relations amongst covariant building blocks of the Kerr background. For generic spin-induced quadrupole couplings, which describe compact objects such as neutron stars, we obtain a no-go result on the existence of such a conserved quantity.

The third post-Newtonian equatorial motion in Kerr spacetime

We calculate the third post-Newtonian (PN) order solution for the equatorial motion of a test particle in Kerr spacetime. In particular, we obtain the effects of the spin-induced quadrupole on the periastron advance and the orbital period at the 3PN order.

Prospects for determining the nature of the secondaries of extreme mass-ratio inspirals using the spin-induced quadrupole deformation

The measurement of multipole moments of astrophysical objects through gravitational wave (GW) observations provides a novel way to distinguish black holes from other astrophysical objects. This paper studies the gravitational wave radiation from an extreme mass ratio inspiral (EMRI) system consisting of a supermassive Kerr black hole (the primary object) and a spinning stellar-mass compact object (the secondary object). The quadrupolar deformation induced by the spin of the secondary is different for different astrophysical objects. We compute the effect of the quadrupolar deformation on the GW phase and provide an order of magnitude estimate of whether LISA can distinguish different astrophysical objects through GW phase measurement. We find that although LISA cannot distinguish between a black hole and a neutron star, it can distinguish black holes from a large variety of highly spinning astrophysical objects like superspinars and highly deformable exotic compact objects like boson stars for EMRI systems with relatively large mass ratio ($q\ensuremath{\sim}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}4}$). Furthermore, we show that the effect of spin-induced quadrupolar deformation on the GW phase for white dwarf and brown dwarf-EMRI systems can be quite significant even for small values of mass ratio ($q\ensuremath{\lesssim}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}6}$).

Population inference of spin-induced quadrupole moments as a probe for nonblack hole compact binaries

Gravitational wave (GW) measurements of physical effects such as spin-induced quadrupole moments can distinguish binaries consisting of black holes from nonblack hole binaries. While these effects may be poorly constrained for single-event inferences with the second-generation detectors, combining information from multiple detections can help uncover features of nonblack hole binaries. The spin-induced quadrupole moment has specific predictions for different types of compact objects, and a generalized formalism must consider a population where different types of compact objects co-exist. In this study, we introduce a hierarchical mixture-likelihood formalism to estimate the fraction of nonbinary black holes in the population. We demonstrate the applicability of this method using simulated GW signals injected into Gaussian noise following the design sensitivities of the Advanced LIGO Advanced Virgo detectors. We compare the performance of this method with a traditionally-followed hierarchical inference approach. Both the methods are equally effective to hint at inhomogeneous populations, however, we find the mixture-likelihood approach to be more natural for mixture populations comprising compact objects of diverse classes. We also discuss the possible systematics in the mixture-likelihood approach, caused by several reasons, including the limited sensitivity of the second-generation detectors, specific features of the astrophysical population distributions, and the limitations posed by the waveform models employed. Finally, we apply this method to the LIGO-Virgo detections published in the second GW transient catalog (GWTC-2) and find them consistent with a binary black hole population with ${f}_{\mathrm{nbh}}$ estimated to be $\ensuremath{\le}0.29$ at 90% credibility.

Neutron Star–Neutron Star and Neutron Star–Black Hole Mergers: Multiband Observations and Early Warnings

Abstract The detections of gravitational waves (GWs) from binary neutron star systems and neutron star–black hole systems provide new insights into dense matter properties in extreme conditions and associated high-energy astrophysical processes. However, currently, information about the neutron star equation of state (EoS) is extracted with very limited precision. Meanwhile, the fruitful results from the serendipitous discovery of the γ-ray burst alongside GW170817 show the necessity of early warning alerts. Accurate measurements of the matter effects and sky location could be achieved by joint GW detection from space and ground. In our work, based on two example cases, GW170817 and GW200105, we use the Fisher information matrix analysis to investigate the multiband synergy between the space-borne decihertz GW detectors and the ground-based Einstein Telescope (ET). We especially focus on the parameters pertaining to the spin-induced quadrupole moment, tidal deformability, and sky localization. We demonstrate that (i) only with the help of multiband observations we can constrain the quadrupole parameter; and (ii) with the inclusion of decihertz GW detectors, the errors of tidal deformability would be a few times smaller, indicating that many more EoSs could be excluded; (iii) with the inclusion of ET, the sky localization improves by about 1 order of magnitude. Furthermore, we have systematically compared the different limits from four planned decihertz detectors and adopting two widely used waveform models.

Gravitational-wave constraints on the GWTC-2 events by measuring the tidal deformability and the spin-induced quadrupole moment

Gravitational waves from compact binary coalescences provide a unique laboratory to test properties of compact objects. As alternatives to the ordinary black holes in general relativity, various exotic compact objects have been proposed. Some of them have largely different values of the tidal deformability and spin-induced quadrupole moment from those of black holes, and their binaries could be distinguished from the binary black hole by using gravitational waves emitted during their inspiral regime, excluding the highly model-dependent merger and ringdown regimes. We reanalyze gravitational waves from low-mass merger events in the GWTC-2, detected by the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo. Focusing on the influence of tidal deformability and spin-induced quadrupole moment in the inspiral waveform, we provide model-independent constraints on deviations from the standard binary black hole case. We find that all events that we have analyzed are consistent with the waveform of the binary black hole in general relativity. Bayesian model selection shows that the hypothesis that the binary is composed of exotic compact objects is disfavored by all events.

Tests of general relativity with binary black holes from the second LIGO-Virgo gravitational-wave transient catalog

Gravitational waves enable tests of general relativity in the highly dynamical and strong-field regime. Using events detected by LIGO-Virgo up to 1 October 2019, we evaluate the consistency of the data with predictions from the theory. We first establish that residuals from the best-fit waveform are consistent with detector noise, and that the low- and high-frequency parts of the signals are in agreement. We then consider parametrized modifications to the waveform by varying post-Newtonian and phenomenological coefficients, improving past constraints by factors of ${\sim}2$; we also find consistency with Kerr black holes when we specifically target signatures of the spin-induced quadrupole moment. Looking for gravitational-wave dispersion, we tighten constraints on Lorentz-violating coefficients by a factor of ${\sim}2.6$ and bound the mass of the graviton to $m_g \leq 1.76 \times 10^{-23} \mathrm{eV}/c^2$ with 90% credibility. We also analyze the properties of the merger remnants by measuring ringdown frequencies and damping times, constraining fractional deviations away from the Kerr frequency to $\delta \hat{f}_{220} = 0.03^{+0.38}_{-0.35}$ for the fundamental quadrupolar mode, and $\delta \hat{f}_{221} = 0.04^{+0.27}_{-0.32}$ for the first overtone; additionally, we find no evidence for postmerger echoes. Finally, we determine that our data are consistent with tensorial polarizations through a template-independent method. When possible, we assess the validity of general relativity based on collections of events analyzed jointly. We find no evidence for new physics beyond general relativity, for black hole mimickers, or for any unaccounted systematics.

The next-to-leading spin-orbit effects on the general motions in Kerr spacetime

We derive the second-and-half post-Newtonian solution for the generally inclined motion of a test particle in Kerr spacetime when the effects of the spin-induced quadrupole are negligible. The next-to-leading order spin-orbit effects on the test particle’s motion are obtained, which are important in fitting the motions of the extremely-mass-ratio-inspiral systems and also calculating the gravitational wave radiated by this kind of systems at the second-and-half post-Newtonian order.

The I-Love-Q Relations for Superfluid Neutron Stars

The I-Love-Q relations are approximate equation-of-state independent relations that connect the moment of inertia, the spin-induced quadrupole moment, and the tidal deformability of neutron stars. In this paper, we study the I-Love-Q relations for superfluid neutron stars for a general relativistic two-fluid model: one fluid being the neutron superfluid and the other a conglomerate of all charged components. We study to what extent the two-fluid dynamics might affect the robustness of the I-Love-Q relations by using a simple two-component polytropic model and a relativistic mean field model with entrainment for the equation-of-state. Our results depend crucially on the spin ratio Ωn/Ωp between the angular velocities of the neutron superfluid and the normal component. We find that the I-Love-Q relations can still be satisfied to high accuracy for superfluid neutron stars as long as the two fluids are nearly co-rotating Ωn/Ωp≈1. However, the deviations from the I-Love-Q relations increase as the spin ratio deviates from unity. In particular, the deviation of the Q-Love relation can be as large as O(10%) if Ωn/Ωp differ from unity by a few tens of percent. As Ωn/Ωp≈1 is expected for realistic neutron stars, our results suggest that the two-fluid dynamics should not affect the accuracy of any gravitational waveform models for neutron star binaries that employ the relation to connect the spin-induced quadrupole moment and the tidal deformability.

Quasiuniversal relations for generalized Skyrme stars

First proposed in 2013 by Yagi and Yunes, the quasi-universal \emph{I-Love-Q relations} consist of a set of relations between the moment of inertia, the spin-induced quadrupole moment and the electric quadrupolar tidal deformability of neutron stars which are independent of the Equation of State (EoS) within an accuracy of $\sim1\%$. In this work, we show that these relations hold for different Skyrme-based nuclear matter EoS and also for the star-like solutions of different Einstein-BPS-Skyrme-models, some of which do not even present a barotropic equation of state. Further, other quasi-universal relations are analyzed, and together with recent GW observations, we use them to select the generalized Skyrme model that better reproduces observations. Our results reaffirm both the universality of the \emph{I-Love-Q} relations and the suitability of generalized Skyrme models to describe nuclear matter inside neutron stars.

Searching for general binary inspirals with gravitational waves

We study whether binary black hole template banks can be used to search for the gravitational waves emitted by general binary coalescences. To recover binary signals from noisy data, matched-filtering techniques are typically required. This is especially true for low-mass systems, with total mass M ≲ 10 M⊙, which can inspiral in the LIGO and Virgo frequency bands for thousands of cycles. In this paper, we focus on the detectability of low-mass binary systems whose individual components can have large spin-induced quadrupole moments and small compactness. The quadrupole contributes to the phase evolution of the waveform whereas the compactness affects the merger frequency of the binary. We find that binary black hole templates (with dimensionless quadrupole κ=1) cannot be reliably used to search for objects with large quadrupoles (κ≳ 20) over a wide range of parameter space. This is especially true if the general object is highly spinning and has a larger mass than its binary companion. A binary that consists of objects with small compactness could merge in the LIGO and Virgo frequency bands, thereby reducing its accumulated signal-to-noise ratio during the inspiraling regime. Template banks which include these more general waveforms must therefore be constructed. These extended banks would allow us to realistically search for the existence of new astrophysical and beyond the Standard Model compact objects.

Testing the Kerr nature of supermassive and intermediate-mass black hole binaries using spin-induced multipole moment measurements

The gravitational wave measurements of spin-induced multipole moment coefficients of a binary black hole system can be used to distinguish black holes from other compact objects []. Here, we apply the idea proposed in reference [] to binary systems composed of supermassive and intermediate-mass black holes and derive the expected bounds on their Kerr nature using future space-based gravitational wave detectors. Using astrophysical models of binary black hole population, we study the measurability of the spin-induced quadrupole and octupole moment coefficients using LISA and DECIGO. The errors on spin-induced quadrupole moment parameter of the binary system are found to be ⩽0.1 for almost 3% of the total supermassive binary black hole population which is detectable by LISA whereas it is ∼46% for the intermediate-mass black hole binaries observable by DECIGO at its design sensitivity. We find that errors on both the quadrupole and octupole moment parameters can be estimated to be ⩽1 for ∼2% and ∼50% of the population respectively for LISA and DECIGO detectors. Our findings suggest that a subpopulation of binary black hole events, with the signal to noise ratio thresholds greater than 200 and 100 respectively for LISA and DECIGO detectors, would permit tests of black hole nature to 10% precision.

The effects of the spin-induced quadrupole on the equatorial motion in Kerr spacetime

The second post-Newtonian solution for the equatorial motion of a test particle in the Kerr spacetime is derived under the harmonic coordinates. The effects of the spin-induced quadrupole on the equatorial motion are obtained. The solution is formulated in terms of the Kerr black hole’s mass and spin, as well as the particle’s orbital energy and angular momentum.

Detweiler’s redshift invariant for extended bodies orbiting a Schwarzschild black hole

We compute the first-order self-force contribution to Detweiler's redshift invariant for extended bodies endowed with both dipolar and quadrupolar structure (with spin-induced quadrupole moment) moving along circular orbits on a Schwarzschild background. Our analysis includes effects which are second order in spin, generalizing previous results for purely spinning particles. The perturbing body is assumed to move on the equatorial plane, the associated spin vector being orthogonal to it. The metric perturbations are obtained by using a standard gravitational self-force approach in a radiation gauge. Our results are accurate through the 6.5 post-Newtonian order, and are shown to reproduce the corresponding post-Newtonian expression for the same quantity computed by using the available Hamiltonian from an effective field theory approach for the dynamics of spinning binaries.

Constraints on the binary black hole nature of GW151226 and GW170608 from the measurement of spin-induced quadrupole moments

According to the "no-hair" conjecture, a Kerr black hole (BH) is completely described by its mass and spin. In particular, the spin-induced quadrupole moment of a Kerr BH with mass $m$ and dimensionless spin $\chi$ can be written as $Q=-\kappa\,m^3\chi^2$, where $\kappa_{\rm BH}=1$. Thus by measuring the spin-induced quadrupole parameter $\kappa$, we can test the binary black hole nature of compact binaries and distinguish them from binaries comprised of other exotic compact objects, as proposed in [N. V. Krishnendu et al., PRL 119, 091101 (2017)]. Here, we present a Bayesian framework to carry out this test where we measure the symmetric combination of individual spin-induced quadrupole moment parameters fixing the anti-symmetric combination to be zero. The analysis is restricted to the inspiral part of the signal as the spin-induced deformations are not modeled in the post-inspiral regime. We perform detailed simulations to investigate the applicability of this method for compact binaries of different masses and spins and also explore various degeneracies in the parameter space which can affect this test. We then apply this method to the gravitational wave events, GW151226 and GW170608 detected during the first and second observing runs of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. We find the two events to be consistent with binary black hole mergers in general relativity. By combining information from several more of such events in future, this method can be used to set constraints on the black hole nature of the population of compact binaries that are detected by the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors.

Surrogate model for an aligned-spin effective-one-body waveform model of binary neutron star inspirals using Gaussian process regression

Fast and accurate waveform models are necessary for measuring the properties of inspiraling binary neutron star systems such as GW170817. We present a frequency-domain surrogate version of the aligned-spin binary neutron star waveform model using the effective-one-body formalism known as SEOBNRv4T. This model includes the quadrupolar and octopolar adiabatic and dynamical tides. The version presented here is improved by the inclusion of the spin-induced quadrupole moment effect and completed by a prescription for tapering the end of the waveform to qualitatively reproduce numerical relativity simulations. The resulting model has 14 intrinsic parameters. We reduce its dimensionality by using universal relations that approximate all matter effects in terms of the leading quadrupolar tidal parameters. The implementation of the time-domain model can take up to an hour to evaluate using a starting frequency of 20 Hz, and this is too slow for many parameter estimation codes that require $\mathcal{O}({10}^{7})$ sequential waveform evaluations. We therefore construct a fast and faithful frequency-domain surrogate of this model using Gaussian process regression. The resulting surrogate has a maximum mismatch of $4.5\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}4}$ for the Advanced LIGO detector and requires $\ensuremath{\sim}0.13\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{s}$ to evaluate for a waveform with a starting frequency of 20 Hz. Finally, we perform an end-to-end test of the surrogate with a set of parameter estimation runs and find that the surrogate accurately recovers the parameters of injected waveforms.

Spin-induced deformations and tests of binary black hole nature using third-generation detectors

In a recent letter [N. V. Krishnendu et al., PRL 119, 091101 (2017)] we explored the possibility of probing the binary black hole nature of coalescing compact binaries, by measuring their spin-induced multipole moments, observed in advanced LIGO detectors. Coefficients characterizing the spin-induced multipole moments of Kerr black holes are predicted by the "no-hair" conjecture and appear in the gravitational waveforms through quadratic and higher order spin interactions and hence can be directly measured from gravitational wave observations. We assess the capabilities of the third-generation gravitational wave interferometers such as Cosmic Explorer and Einstein Telescope in carrying out such measurements and use them to test the binary black hole nature of observed binaries. In this paper, we extend the investigations of our previous work, by proposing to measure (a) spin-induced quadrupole effects, (b) simultaneous measurements of spin-induced quadrupole and octupole effects, in the context of the third-generation detectors. We find that, using third-generation detectors the symmetric combination of coefficients associated with spin-induced quadrupole moment of each binary component may be constrained to a value $\leq 1.1$ while a similar combination of coefficients for spin-induced octupole moment may be constrained to $\leq 2$, where both combinations take the value of 1 for a binary black hole system. Further, we consider two different binary black hole populations, as proxies of the population that will be observed by the third generation detectors, and obtain the resulting distribution of the spin-induced quadrupole coefficient. These estimates suggest that third-generation detectors can accurately constrain the first four multipole moments of the compact objects (mass, spin, quadrupole, and octupole) facilitating a thorough probe of their black hole nature.