Towards a “Kicked” Frequency-Domain Waveform Approximant

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Abstract:: Generic black hole binaries emit gravitational waves anisotropically due to mass and spin asymmetries. The gravitational waves carry linear momentum away from the binary in a preferential direction that causes the binary to recoil during the late inspiral and merger phases of evolution. The black hole recoil (or kick) results in emitted gravitational waves that are Doppler shifted during merger-ringdown as a function of the kick velocity. Gravitational wave observations of such a Doppler shift will allow for the first direct detections of black hole kicks from a binary coalescence. We extend existing phenomenological analytic frequency-domain gravitational waveform approximants to model gravitational waves from a kicked back hole binary. Our kicked frequency-domain model is quick to calculate and can be used to (i) explore kick detectability over large regions of parameter space, (ii) address degeneracies that are present between kicks and other binary parameters, and (iii) place projected constraints on black hole kick velocities with current and future detectors.

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LIGO Document T1700284-v1