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Area of Science:

  • Gravitational-wave astronomy
  • Black hole astrophysics
  • General relativity

Background:

  • Gravitational-wave detectors like Advanced LIGO observe mergers of compact objects.
  • Black hole mergers can occur in quasicircular or highly eccentric orbits.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the degeneracy between gravitational-wave signals from quasicircular precessing black-hole mergers and head-on collisions.
  • To assess the impact of this degeneracy on the interpretation of observed gravitational-wave events.

Main Methods:

  • Numerical simulations of head-on black-hole collisions.
  • Model selection analysis comparing simulated head-on merger signals with models for quasicircular binaries.
  • Analysis of signal-to-noise ratios typical of Advanced LIGO observations.

Main Results:

  • Head-on mergers with specific mass ranges (125–300 and 200–440 solar masses) can be misidentified as distant, precessing quasicircular intermediate-mass black-hole binaries.
  • Distinguishing between head-on and quasicircular mergers requires advanced waveform models for head-on collisions and specific astrophysical priors.
  • The degeneracy can lead to misclassification of black hole masses relative to the pair-instability supernova mass gap.

Conclusions:

  • The observed gravitational-wave signals may not always represent the true astrophysical scenario.
  • Accurate identification of merger types is crucial for understanding black hole populations and formation channels.
  • Further development of waveform models and analysis techniques is needed to resolve these degeneracies.