Pith. sign in

REVIEW 8 cited by

Not yet reviewed by Pith; the record is open.

This paper has not been read by Pith yet. Machine review is queued; the pith claim, tier, and objections will appear here once it completes.

SPECIMEN: schema-true, not a live event

T0 review · schema-true

One-sentence machine reading of the paper's core claim.

pith:XXXXXXXX · record.json · timestamp

arxiv astro-ph/9412038 v3 pith:YWWAGEZO submitted 1994-12-09 astro-ph

Ultra-Low Frequency Gravitational Radiation from Massive Black Hole Binaries

classification astro-ph
keywords binariesbinaryblackcomputefieldgalaxygravitationalhole
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal T4 reserved
0 comments
read the original abstract

For massive black hole binaries produced in galactic mergers, we examine the possibility of inspiral induced by interaction with field stars. We model the evolution of such binaries for a range of galaxy core and binary parameters, using numerical results from the literature to compute the binary's energy and angular momentum loss rates due to stellar encounters and including the effect of back-action on the field stars. We find that only a small fraction of binary systems can merge within a Hubble time via unassisted stellar dynamics. External perturbations may, however, cause efficient inspiral. Averaging over a population of central black holes and galaxy mergers, we compute the expected background of gravitational radiation with periods Pw ~ 1-10 yr. Comparison with sensitivities from millisecond pulsar timing suggests that the strongest sources may be detectable with modest improvements to present experiments.

discussion (0)

Sign in with ORCID, Apple, or X to comment. Anyone can read and Pith papers without signing in.

Forward citations

Cited by 8 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score.

  1. Probing Supermassive Black Hole Mergers with Pulsar Timing Arrays

    astro-ph.HE 2026-04 unverdicted novelty 7.0

    Pulsar timing arrays can probe supermassive black hole binaries that merged prior to observations via the pulsar term, with SKA potentially detecting a few such zombie binaries at SNR > 3.

  2. Population statistics of nanohertz gravitational wave sources

    astro-ph.HE 2026-07 conditional novelty 6.0

    A hierarchical Bayesian inference framework combining free-spectrum reconstruction with population-level likelihoods distinguishes finite SMBHB populations from Gaussian primordial GWB using mock PTA data.

  3. Comparing gravitational wave background predictions from cosmological simulations to pulsar timing observations

    astro-ph.GA 2026-07 conditional novelty 6.0

    FABLE simulation predictions for the nanohertz gravitational wave background are statistically consistent with NANOGrav 15-year data at 1–2.5σ tension, with physically motivated population modifications further improv...

  4. Higher-order statistics of the stochastic gravitational wave background from supermassive black hole binaries

    astro-ph.HE 2026-05 unverdicted novelty 6.0

    With a physically motivated z_min cutoff, higher-order moments of the SGWB from SMBH binaries depend on the mass function solely via <M^{10/3}>, giving a variance-to-mean ratio for <M^{10/3}>/<M^{5/3}> and a kurtosis-...

  5. The Heavy Tailed Non-Gaussianity of the Supermassive Black Hole Gravitational Wave Background

    astro-ph.CO 2026-04 unverdicted novelty 6.0

    The gravitational wave background from supermassive black hole binaries has a universal heavy-tailed amplitude distribution with power-law index -4, causing divergent higher moments and dominance of the strongest sign...

  6. Finite Populations & Finite Time: The Non-Gaussianity of a Gravitational Wave Background

    gr-qc 2025-11 unverdicted novelty 6.0

    Finite populations of inspiralling supermassive black hole binaries plus finite observation windows introduce non-Gaussian statistics in the pulsar timing array signal that are absent from the Gaussian approximation u...

  7. Expectations for the first supermassive black-hole binary resolved by PTAs II: Milestones for binary characterization

    astro-ph.IM 2025-10 unverdicted novelty 5.0

    Simulations of continuous-wave searches show that PTA data first constrain GW frequency and strain amplitude together, then sky location, with chirp mass and inclination following later for evolving sources, with prec...

  8. Gravitational Waves from Post-Inflationary Magnetism: Direct and Scalar-Induced Contributions

    astro-ph.CO 2026-05 unverdicted novelty 4.0

    In a post-inflationary magnetogenesis scenario with time-dependent gauge couplings, magnetic anisotropic stress dominates peak GW amplitude while scalar-induced terms matter on larger scales, both showing f^3 infrared...