Higher signal harmonics, LISA's angular resolution, and dark energy

K. G. Arun, Bala R. Iyer, B. S. Sathyaprakash, Siddhartha Sinha, Chris Van Den Broeck

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

107 Scopus citations

Abstract

It is generally believed that the angular resolution of the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) for binary supermassive black holes (SMBH) will not be good enough to identify the host galaxy or galaxy cluster. This conclusion, based on using only the dominant harmonic of the binary SMBH signal, changes substantially when higher signal harmonics are included in assessing the parameter estimation problem. We show that in a subset of the source parameter space the angular resolution increases by more than a factor of 10, thereby making it possible for LISA to identify the host galaxy/galaxy cluster. Thus, LISA's observation of certain binary SMBH coalescence events could constrain the dark energy equation of state to within a few percent, comparable to the level expected from other dark energy missions.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number104016
JournalPhysical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology
Volume76
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 9 2007

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Nuclear and High Energy Physics
  • Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Higher signal harmonics, LISA's angular resolution, and dark energy'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this