As pairs of black holes inspiral and merge, they create gravitational waves. These waves hold information about the environment in which the black holes are embedded: using future space-based gravitational-wave detectors, it will be possible to distinguish what kind of environment that is.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$29.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 digital issues and online access to articles
$119.00 per year
only $9.92 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Baker, J. et al. The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna: Unveiling the millihertz gravitational wave sky. Bull. AAS https://baas.aas.org/pub/2020n7i077 (2019). This white paper, for the 2020 Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics, presents the scope of the future gravitational wave detector LISA.
Tanaka, H., Takeuchi, T. & Ward, W. R. Three-dimensional interaction between a planet and an isothermal gaseous disk. I. Corotation and Lindblad torques and planet migration. Astrophys. J. 565, 1257–1274 (2002). This paper examines the gas torques due to accretion disks.
Coogan, A., Bertone, G., Gaggero, D., Kavanagh, D. J. & Nichols, D. A. Measuring the dark matter environments of black hole binaries with gravitational waves. Phys. Rev. D. 105, 043009 (2022). This paper presents the state-of-the-art analysis of dynamical friction due to dark matter and the Bayesian approach to measuring such effects.
Baumann, D., Bertone, G., Stout, J. & Tomaselli, G. M. Sharp signals of boson clouds in black hole binary inspirals. Phys. Rev. Lett. 128, 221102 (2022). This paper presents the key ionization results for gravitational atoms.
Additional information
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
This is a summary of: Cole, P. S. et al. Distinguishing environmental effects on binary black hole gravitational waveforms. Nat. Astron. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-023-01990-2 (2023).
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Gravitational waves could reveal the environment of inspiralling black holes. Nat Astron 7, 896–897 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-023-01992-0
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-023-01992-0
