On the Single-event-based Identification of Primordial Black Hole Mergers at Cosmological Distances
Abstract

The existence of primordial black holes (PBHs), which may form from the collapse of matter overdensities shortly after the Big Bang, is still under debate. Among the potential signatures of PBHs are gravitational waves (GWs) emitted from binary black hole (BBH) mergers at redshiftsz≳ 30, where the formation of astrophysical black holes is unlikely. Future ground-based GW detectors, the Cosmic Explorer and Einstein Telescope, will be able to observe equal-mass BBH mergers with total mass of$(10–100)M⊙$at such distances. In this work, we investigate whether the redshift measurement of a single BBH source can be precise enough to establish its primordial origin. We simulate BBHs of different masses, mass ratios and orbital orientations. We show that for BBHs with total masses between 20Mand 40Mmerging atz≥ 40, one can inferz> 30 at up to 97% credibility, with a network of one Einstein Telescope, one 40 km Cosmic Explorer in the US, and one 20 km Cosmic Explorer in Australia. This number reduces to 94% with a smaller network made of one Einstein Telescope and one 40 km Cosmic Explorer in the US. We also analyze how the measurement depends on the Bayesian priors used more »

Authors:
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Award ID(s):
Publication Date:
NSF-PAR ID:
10367549
Journal Name:
The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Volume:
931
Issue:
1
Page Range or eLocation-ID:
Article No. L12
ISSN:
2041-8205
Publisher:
DOI PREFIX: 10.3847
National Science Foundation
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