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Using Black Hole Mergers to Explore Structure FormationObservations of gravitational waves from massive black hole mergers will open a new window into the era of structure formation in the early universe. Past efforts have concentrated on calculating merger rates using different physical assumptions, resulting in merger rate estimates that span a wide range (0.1 - 10(exp 4) mergers/year). We develop a semi-analytical, phenomenological model of massive black hole mergers that includes plausible combinations of several physical parameters, which we then turn around to determine how well observations with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) will be able to enhance our understanding of the universe during the critical z approximately equal to 5-30 epoch. Our approach involves generating synthetic LISA observable data (total BH masses, BH mass ratios, redshifts, merger rates), which are then analyzed using a Markov Chain Monte Carlo method, thus finding constraints for the physical parameters of the mergers. We find that our method works well at estimating merger parameters and that the number of merger events is a key discriminant among models, therefore making our method robust against observational uncertainties. Our approach can also be extended to more physically-driven models and more general problems in cosmology. This work is supported in part by the Cooperative Education Program at NASA/GSFC.
Document ID
20080043940
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Alicea-Munoz, E.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Miller, M. Coleman
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Date Acquired
August 24, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2009
Subject Category
Astrophysics
Meeting Information
Meeting: American Astronomical Society meeting (AAS)
Location: Long Beach, CA
Country: United States
Start Date: January 3, 2009
End Date: January 8, 2009
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

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