Systematic bias on the inspiral-merger-ringdown consistency test due to neglect of orbital eccentricity

The inspiral-merger-ringdown (IMR) consistency test checks the consistency of the final mass and final spin of a binary black hole merger remnant, independently inferred via the inspiral and merger-ringdown parts of the waveform. As binaries are expected to be nearly circularized when entering the frequency band of ground-based detectors, tests of general relativity (GR) currently employ quasi-circular waveforms. We quantify the effect of residual orbital eccentricity on the IMR consistency test. We find that eccentricity causes a significant systematic bias in the inferred final mass and spin of the remnant black hole at an orbital eccentricity (defined at 10 Hz) of e 0 (cid:38) 0 . 1 in the LIGO band (for a total binary mass in the range 65 − 200 M (cid:12) ). For binary black holes observed by Cosmic Explorer (CE), the systematic bias becomes significant for e 0 (cid:38) 0 . 015 (for 200 − 600 M (cid:12) systems). This eccentricity-induced bias on the final mass and spin leads to an apparent inconsistency in the IMR consistency test, manifesting as a false violation of GR. Hence, eccentric corrections to waveform models are important for constructing a robust test of GR, especially for 3rd-generation (3G) detectors. We also estimate the eccentric corrections to the relationship between the inspiral parameters and the final mass and final spin; they are shown to be quite small.

[1]  Thomas Hellman PHIL , 2018, Encantado.

[2]  Gabriela Gonzalez,et al.  The LIGO Scientific Collaboration , 2015 .

[3]  The VIRGO Collaboration , 2010 .