The frequency spectrum of gravitational waves from

TUTE
eccentric orbits MASSACHUSET INSTI

by JUL 2 4 2019
Bidisha Sen LIBRARIES
Submitted to the Department of Physics ARCHIVES
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Bachelor of Science in Physics
at the
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
June 2019

@ Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2019. All rights reserved.

Signature redacted
A u tho r ....................................
Department of Physics
May 10, 2019

Signature redacted
Certified by ...........................
Scott A. Hughes
Professor and Atrophysics Division Head
Thesis Supervisor

Signature redacted
Accepted by ..........................
Nergis Mavalvala
Associate Head and Senior Thesis Coordinator, Department of Physics
2
 The frequency spectrum of gravitational waves from
eccentric orbits
by
Bidisha Sen

Submitted to the Department of Physics

on May 10, 2019, in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of
Bachelor of Science in Physics

Abstract
Gravitational waves emitted from binary black hole systems carry energy away from
the orbit, and cause the black holes to spiral towards one another and eventually
merge. While all such detected systems are effectively circular at coalescence, these
binaries may start out with non-negligible eccentricity. Due to certain astrophysical
phenomena, it is expected that some binary systems may merge with some residual
eccentricity, and so understanding how to measure the waveforms from these systems
are of particular interest for future third generation detectors, such as LISA.

Thesis Supervisor: Scott A. Hughes

Title: Professor and Astrophysics Division Head

3
4
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Professor Hughes for his mentorship throughout this project,
as well as throughout previous UROP projects. His guidance in both research as well
as in academics has helped me tremendously.

5
6
Contents

1 Introduction 13
1.1 H istory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.2 M otivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

2 Power Radiated 17

3 Validation of Waveform Formulas 21

4 Signal to Noise Ratios 25

4.1 Stationary Phase Approximation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.2 Signal to Noise Ratio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
4.3 A pplications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

A Tables 31

B Figures 33

7
8
List of Figures

B-1 Evolution of eccentricity (blue) and semimajor axis (orange) for a sys-
tem with 15 and 25 solar masses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
B-2 The spectrum for the plus polarization of gravitational waves from an
eccentric binary system in time space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
B-3 The spectrum for the cross polarization of gravitational waves from an
eccentric binary system in time space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
B-4 The frequency spectrum of gravitational waves from an eccentric binary
system .. . . . . . . . .... .. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

9
10
List of Tables

A.1 SNRs for a sample of different systems at a distance of 500Mpc from

the observer. The masses of the binaries are given in units of solar
masses, and the inspiral time is the time it takes the system to reach
reach coalescence starting from an orbital frequency of 0.03Hz. The
values for the signal to noise ratios were calculated using the sensitivity
projected for the 3rd LIGO run, that began on April 1st, 2019. We
require SNRs on the order of 5 to be able to detect these eccentric
binary systems through various noise sources. We observe that systems
with larger masses have higher SNRs, and systems with large mass
differences have the largest detectability, since they have the largest
SN R s. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

11
12
Chapter 1

Introduction

Throughout space, there are many massive objects that bend spacetime significantly,
such as black holes. When these objects are close enough to each other to experience
gravitational attraction, they orbit each other and generate ripples in spacetime as
they move. Albert Einstein was the first to hypothesize that these ripples, called
gravitational waves, should exist when he formulated General Relativity in his 1916
paper [1J.

1.1 History

According to Einstein, masses in spacetime cause spacetime to curve, which in turn

creates gravitational forces experienced by the masses. As the objects move, grav-
itational radiation is emitted. This radiation carries energy outwards as ripples in
spacetime. This radiated energy comes from the orbit, thus causing the orbit to lose
energy and decay. These ripples, or gravitational waves, travel throughout space and
cause matter to stretch and squeeze as the waves pass through. When the orbit of the
two masses finally merges, a large burst of gravitational radiation is emitted. General
relativity predicts that the time variation of a source's mass quadrupole moment will
cause a fractional stretch and squeeze h. The relation between the gravitational waves

13
and the quadrupole moment is given by

2 G d2
h--- idt dt2 (1.1)
r

where
IiJ p
(x', t)(x') (x')j dax' , (1.2)

and Iij = Ig - kk 6i. The coupling of the radiation to the source dynamics involves
the combination G/c 4 , which is very small, and reflects the fundamental weakness
of gravity. This tells us that enormously strong variations to the source quadrupole
are needed in order for the system to generate significant amounts of gravitational
radiation. Because the stretch and squeeze is so slight even for the most energetic
waves, the existence of gravitational waves could not be verified for many decades.
The first evidence that such a phenomena existed was from radio observations
of pulsars in binary systems in 1975 by Hulse and Taylor. Soon after discovery,
it was clear that the pulsar was in orbit about another massive body. From the
properties of the orbit, it was quickly determined that this body was itself another
neutron star. After several years of observation, it became clear that the binary's
orbit was decaying. Detailed analysis showed that the rate of decay agreed precisely
with general relativity's prediction for decay due to gravitational-wave emission [2].
Several additional binaries were discovered that exhibited orbit decay, but it wasn't
until early 2016 that the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or
LIGO, announced the first direct detection of such gravitational waves. Using a pair
of 4-kilometer laser interferometric antennae, LIGO detected a merger between a 36
solar mass and 29 solar mass black hole. This event has been named GW150914 for
its discovery date, 14 September 2015. Since this first detection, LIGO has found
mergers between neutron stars and additional black holes in a similar way.
So far, LIGO has detected waves emitted from effectively circular systems. At
formation, a binary's orbits could have significant eccentricity, depending on the as-
trophysical mechanism by which the binary is formed. When any system starts in-
spiralling, the orbits decrease in eccentricity as the objects spiral closer to each other

14
and energy is lost from the system. This causes the system to circularize. When the
objects merge, it is very likely for the system to be completely circular. However, it
is possible that there might exist binary black hole systems that merge with residual
eccentricity in situations where there is not enough time for the system to become
perfectly circular.

1.2 Motivation

In the past three years, LIGO has detected gravitational waves arising from several
binary black hole systems in the last few seconds of inspiral before the final merger. All
of the systems so far have been detected with data that match models of systems with
zero eccentricity. Certain binary black hole formation mechanisms indicate that LIGO
should expect to measure some system with small, non-zero eccentricity, especially in
future upgrades that will detect these systems at earlier times. The planned space-
based low-frequency detector LISA may catch these systems weeks, months, or even
years before they become LIGO sources, when they may have substantial eccentricity.
The detailed gravitational wave spectrum of systems with nonzero eccentricity, of
crucial importance for understanding how to to measure these systems, is significantly
more complicated than the spectrum of the circular cases that have been measured
so far. Unfortunately, the most complete paper on the subject has known errors in it,
where the formulas are inconsistent with the figures produced. Therefore, in order to
have a better understanding about waveforms from eccentric systems, it is necessary
to find the correct equations governing these systems from first principles, and then
seeing how detectable these systems are.
In this thesis, we will first perform a check of the formulas in Ref. [6] (hereafter
referred to as Pierro et al.) for waveforms of eccentric sources from first principles,
then we will calculate the signal to noise ratios of these eccentric waveforms, and then
discuss the applications of this to astrophysical mechanisms.

15
16
Chapter 2

Power Radiated

Before we can understand the formulas given in Pierro et al. and perform an inde-
pendent check from first principles, we first need to understand the fundamentals of
gravitational radiation. Peters and Mathews developed analytic forms for the leading
behavior of the gravitational waveforms [4]. Using their result, they further showed
that the power carried by the gravitational waves takes the form

G ......
P 5 (2.1)

where an overdot denotes d/dt. By assuming Keplerian orbits and averaging over a
period, this can be further reduced to

32 G 4 m2m2(mi + M 2
f (e). (2.2)
)

(p) = 5_ 5C5
1 a5

This form depends on the two masses mi and m 2 of the binary's members, the binary's
semi-major axis a, and the eccentricity e. The function

f(e) (I + 73 e2 _+ 37 e4)
_ +96 (2.3)

is such that f(0) = 1, and so can be regarded as an enhancement to the power

17
radiated due to the system's eccentricity [4].

Using this, Peters went on to calculate how the eccentricity and the semi-major
axis of a Keplerian system changes over time. Starting with the form of power radiated
by Keplerian systems, he added constraints from Einstein's field equations as well as
conservation laws for energy, linear momentum, and angular momentum. After using
second order gravitational stress energy from the Ricci tensor for both dE/dt and
dL/dt, Ref. [5] derives simple analytic forms for de/dt and da/dt. The results are
given by
32 G7/2 m2Mr(mi + M 2 ) 1/ 2 7
SdL ) = 12(1 + -e2). (2.4)
5 7 2
dt 5 5c a / 8

Combining this with our earlier results for (dE/dt), Ref. [5] shows that

de 304 Gr3 MiM 2 (mi + m 2 )

- =- e (1 + 121 e2)
2
(2.5)
dt 15 5c 5 a 4 (1 - e2)5/2 304

and
da _
(I + L2e2
24 + 37 4
96 e ) (1 + 24~
73e2 + 967e4).2 (2.6)
2 7/ 2 (I - C2)7/2
dt (1 - e )

These results show that the orbit shrinks and the eccentricity decreases due to
gravitational-wave emission. In other words, orbits circularize as they shrink. We
therefore can reasonably expect mostly circular orbits at coalescence even in systems
that originate with large eccentricities. This is consistent with the fact that we have
only detected circular systems so far.

In fact, due to the frequency band that LIGO is able to detect, it is possible that
eccentric mergers could be detected, but it would be difficult to discern. Largely ec-
centric systems will radiate at lower frequencies when the black holes have a relatively
large separation. As gravitational waves are emitted, and orbits decay, this frequency
will increase.

However, as alluded to in the introduction, there are mechanisms that make it

possible for systems to have residual eccentricity at coalescence, so it is important to
find the correct model waveforms for these rarer systems before we can understand

18
what to look for, if these binaries produce waves that fall in the band of current
detectors.

19
 20

- - - -7 -- - . - .. 3
- -. . -- - - -- -N '- '.C .. ,-.-,-- -r. .. . -y - :. n~.
.. ----" . - -- -.. - - . . -. ..-. -.--- ,.
".,.
..-..
.
Chapter 3

Validation of Waveform Formulas

Now that we are aware of what form gravitational radiation from binary systems
takes, we can understand the motivation of Pierro et al., and perform a check on their
proposed formulas with the mass quadrupole moment, since the plots in their paper
are inconsistent with their forumlas. While all orbits circularize as power is radiated
from the system, there are physical processes that prevent some orbits from turning
effectively circular at coalescence. For these orbits, we need to find the equations that
govern the dynamics of the system, since eccentricity will change dynamics.

These equations in Ref. [6] start from the power radiated by the nth harmonic of
the orbital frequency from the Peters and Matthews model of binary systems:

- =2G 22
n =5c5 )Gmax(e)(n, e) (3.1)

where Gmax(e) is the ratio between the total luminosity for the brightest spectral
line and that of a circular binary system with the same parameter, and 4(n, e) is the
spectral power distribution. Note that the sum over all In will give the total power
radiated from the system. Also note that

3
3 a
x= c3 (3.2)
GmIm 2

21
and
A = M1-M2 [61. (3.3)
mI + m 2

Starting with the equation for hij and assuming that the orbit changes adiabat-
ically, Pierro et al. introduce a Fourier series expansion for the two polarizations
of the gravitation waveform. Their result is described by the following sequence of
equations. Begin with equations for the two polarizations, h+ and hx:

cos
hx = [2h, cos(2 p) - (hxx - hyy) sin(2p)] (3.4)

1 3 + cos1(2d) - cos(27)
h+ c os ) [2hxy sin(2p) + (hxx - hyy) cos(2p)] - 4o (hx + hyy).
(3.5)

Here, the angle 0 is the elevation angle from the binary to the observer, while the
angle o is the azimuthal angle from the binary to the observer. The functions hxx,
hyy, and hxy which appear here are given by

00 ()
2

hx= h"Y sin(n Tt) (3.6)

n=1

00 () 2w7
hxsy = hX Y)cos(n Tt) (3.7)
n=-1

where T is the orbital period, and where

1
(n) = 4 hon(1 - e21/2[Jn- 2 (ne) + Jn+2 (ne) - 2Jn(ne)]
hXYJ (3.8)

hx") = (ne) - J,+2 (ne) - 2e(Jn-1 (ne) - Jn+1(ne)) + 2 Jn(ne)]

2hon[Jn- 2X-Y (3.9)
n

= -4hoJn(ne).
-+Y (3.10)

22
In these equations, ho = (2G 2 mim 2 )/(ac4 d) and J, is the nth Bessel function of the
first kind. Note that these equations reproduce well-known results for circular orbits
when e = 0; in particular, only the n = 2 terms contribute to the waveform in that
limit.

These equations from Pierro et al. do not produce results that match the figures
given by Pierro et al. Accordingly, we began our analysis by computing the wave-
forms from eccentric binaries from first principles. We begin by defining a Newtonian
solution to a binary system with eccentricity:

2
(i)a(1 -e e 2) (3.11)
)
1+ C cos(#)
x = r(O)cos 0 (3.12)

y = r(#) sin 0 (3.13)

z = 0 (3.14)

as well as the angular momentum:

L = yi GMa(1 - e 2 ). (3.15)

From here, we can define the mass quadrupole for this Newtonian system:

IUx = pif(#)2 - r (3.16)

3
r(#5) 2 (.7
ivy = P[y(0)2 (]
3 (3.17)

Izz = p-[z(0)2 - r ]0 (3.18)

3
Ixy =-p[x(#)y(O)] (3.19)

IY2= Ply(#)z(O)] (3.20)

IzU = p[x(#)z(#)] (3.21)

23
We also need to know how the orbital phase $ accumulates with time. From a
standard discussion of Keplerian orbits (for example, Chapter 7 of Ref. [3]), we have

where Q is the Keplerian frequency of the orbit. Using these with our equation for
hi, we find

2
4e 2 G2 MI + 13eG2 Myu cos(q5) + 12G My cos(20) + 3eG My cos(3$)
2
h
3ad(e2 - 1)
(3.23)

17eG 2 Mp cos($) - 12G 2 Mp cos(20) - 3eG MI cos(3$)

2
-8e 2 G2 Mu -
h
3ad(e2 - 1)
(3.24)
2
h 4(e 2 G2 M p + eG Mp cos($)
3ad(e2 - 1)
(3.25)
2
5eG 2 My sin($) + 4G My sin(2) + eG My sin(3)
2
h
ad(e 2 - 1)
(3.26)

where d is the distance to the binary. These four terms are sufficient for the purposes
of our calculation. From here, we can expand order by order in eccentricity and
add in the Keplerian frequency Q. We find that the formulas derived from first
principles match the results from Pierro et al. up to order e . We conclude that the
inconsistencies in the graphs and the formulas in Pierro et al. are from a plotting
error, rather than an error in the calculations, and so their equations are reliable for
the purpose of our analysis.

24
Chapter 4

Signal to Noise Ratios

We now calculate the back reaction from this binary system. Starting from the same
equations for (r, x, y, z) as before, and using the change of units such that all of
our physical quantities have the units of seconds, we now add in the equations for
radiation from these systems, as defined by Peters [5].
We numerically integrate the coupled differential equations for eccentricity e and
semimajor axis a; an example of the solution we find is shown in Fig. B-1. We see that
at coalescence, eccentricity becomes much smaller than the initial value, as expected.

4.1 Stationary Phase Approximation

In order to calculate a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), we will need to know the frequency
domain representation of the waveforms from these systems. If the phase of the wave
is varying slowly enough, the stationary phase approximation will allow us to Fourier
transform our waveforms into frequency space.
Let us begin with a circular orbit. For such a system, there is only one orbital
frequency harmonic that contributes to the signal that we can detect. We name such
a signal a "single voice" system. Such a signal has the form

h(t) = A(t) cos[<b(t) + Oo]. (4.1)

25
We define d4/dt = 21rF(t), where the F(t) is the instantaneous signal frequency, and
require

1 dA
F dt «A (4.2)
ldF
F dt
F dt «<F. (4.3)

When these conditions hold, we can expand the phase q in a Taylor series,

dF2
4D(t) = 4DO + 2,r Ft + 7r dt2 . (44
4..
dt
The Fourier transform integral

Ih(f) = h(t)e~x (4.5)

can then be evaluated to

I(f)A[t(f)] ei(0o+(o-/ 4
= ). (4.6)
2 /dF/dt

Let us now consider eccentric systems. From the analysis given in Pierro et al.,
we see that eccentric orbits have multiple frequency harmonics that contribute to
the signal; we call this a "multi voice" signal. We must modify our stationary phase
approximation to accommodate this. Our signal is of the form:

00 00

h(t) = Ane(t) cos[nrA(t)] + E An(t) sin[nD(t)]. (4.7)

n=1 n=1

We can find the Fourier representation for the cosine and sine sums separately. For

26
the cosine sum, we find

l =(f)
1 Anc[tn(f)] e-i(neo+x/4) (4.8)
E 12 ndF/dt

For the sine sum, the result is

I
h(f) 2 1n1 ridF/dt (4.9)

We have introduced the time tn(f); this is the time at which f = nF. We will set
the initial orbital phase 4)o to be 0 for our calculations.

4.2 Signal to Noise Ratio

We can now use this to calculate the signal to noise ratios of the emitted gravitational
waves. We first need to pick the masses of our system. We then integrate the equations
da/dt and de/dt to find numerical solutions a(t) and e(t), and we set the orbital
frequency to be the Keplerian frequency:

1 GM
F(t) = .(t) (4.10)
27r a(t)3

We then compute dF/dt and find the time tn(f) when F(t) = f for a frequency f
when the Fourier integral of the signal converges. We will see what the results are for

both small and large values of n.

Using these equations, we find the analytic solutions for the different polarizations

of the gravitational waveforms from these systems, using the formulas that we checked

from Pierro et al. In the time domain, these waveforms appear as shown in Fig. B-2

and Fig. B-3. For these plots, we used a time spacing of 1 second to numerically
integrate our functions to get our polarizations; we set the elevation angle d = 7r/10,

and the azimuthal angle p = 0. The waveforms are qualitatively similar for other

27
 angles as well.

To find the representation in frequency space, we define a time period and time
step for analyzing the pulse from such a system from the time it takes the system to
reach coalescence. We use our multi-voiced stationary phase approximation equations
and add in our antenna response functions for our detectors. This, combined with
the noise curves from the detector that we are interested in will allow is to integrate
the signal, which appears as shown in Fig. B-4. We observe that certain harmonics
have a greater contribution to the waveform than others. This means that when these
waveforms are detected, there will be a spread of frequencies that will contribute to
the signal, but not all frequencies contribute equally to the signal.

From this, we can find the signal to noise ratio from the following formula for
short lived events:

p /4fhigh f(4.11)
2
IF+h+(f)Fx h (f)1 2 df
f. Sn(f)

where F+ and Fx are the antenna response functions and Sn is the spectral noise
density of the detector. We only need to consider the harmonics that lie in the range
between n = nmin= f/Fmax and n - nmax f/Fin to compute this integral.

For the events LISA will be able to detect, we must modify our integral: LISA
events are very long lived, and the antenna response functions will vary over the
course of the observation. The numerator in the integral becomes a sum over the
harmonics:

nm""F+[t )I(f) F[t((f)].1(2

p
2
=-4 I fhigh I~
fj"'
~
""df
nnaF ]~n()X
'Sn(f
S hn 2
. (4.12)
)

28
4.3 Applications

From here, we can calculate the signal to noise ratios of different mass systems. We
find that our values vary depending on the masses in the system, as seen from the
sample cases in Table A.1. When there is a large difference in the two masses, the
signal to noise ratio is the largest, meaning that the detectability is greatest for these
systems. For systems with large masses involved, but a small difference between the
masses, the SNR is much larger than order 5, which is the order we would like in order
to detect these systems. Therefore, given these values for the signal to noise rations
for different systems, it will be possible to detect eccentric binary systems with large
masses with future detectors, such as LISA.
Currently, it is not known what the difference between the data for detections of
eccentric systems and circular systems is. While future detectors will be able to detect
mergers with residual eccentricity, it is not currently certain whether the eccentricity
will be known from the detections, and if it is, how well it can be determined. Future
work will need to be done to compare the frequency band for circular orbit mergers and
the band for eccentric orbit mergers in order to differentiate between the detections
of these two systems. Once that is done, future detectors will be able to use these
results to detect eccentric systems well.

29
30
Appendix A

Tables

31
Table A.1: SNRs for a sample of different systems at a distance of 500Mpc from
the observer. The masses of the binaries are given in units of solar masses, and
the inspiral time is the time it takes the system to reach reach coalescence starting
from an orbital frequency of 0.03Hz. The values for the signal to noise ratios were
calculated using the sensitivity projected for the 3rd LIGO run, that began on April
1st, 2019. We require SNRs on the order of 5 to be able to detect these eccentric
binary systems through various noise sources. We observe that systems with larger
masses have higher SNRs, and systems with large mass differences have the largest
detectability, since they have the largest SNRs.

Masses of binary members: 5 Mo, 10 MO

Inspiral time = 232.193s
SNR = 5.40957

Masses of binary members: 15 Mo, 35 Mo

Inspiral time = 1260.54s
SNR = 36.6714

Masses of binary members: 25 MO, 30 MO

inspiral time = 3648.88s
SNR = 7.67378

Masses of binary members: 35 MO, 45 MO

Inspiral time = 1838.84s
SNR = 11.0173

32
Appendix B

Figures

33
 0.8

0.6

0.4-

0.2

2 4 6 8 10 12 14

Figure B-1: Evolution of eccentricity (blue) and semimajor axis (orange) for a system
with 15 and 25 solar masses.

34
 1,x1lO

I'100
-70

1~ DD 30D

-2-x10 -1VV

Figure B-2: The spectrum for the plus polarization of gravitational waves from an
eccentric binary system in time space.

35
 4. x 10

2. x 107

100 300 N 500 6 0

-2. x 107

-4. x 10~

-6. x 10~

Figure B-3: The spectrum for the cross polarization of gravitational waves from an
eccentric binary system in time space.

36
10

200 400 600 800 1000

Figure B-4: The frequency spectrum of gravitational waves from an eccentric binary
system.

37
38
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[3] J.B. Marion and S.T. Thornton. Classical Dynamics of Particles and Systems,
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[4] PC Peters and Jon Mathews. Gravitational radiation from point masses in a
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[5] Philip Carl Peters. Gravitational radiation and the motion of two point masses.
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[61 V Pierro, IM Pinto, AD Spallicci, E Laserra, and F Recano. Fast and accurate
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39