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Parameter estimation of gravitational wave data is often computationally expensive, requiring simplifying assumptions such as circularization of binary orbits. Although, if included, the subdominant effects like orbital eccentricity may provide crucial insights into the formation channels of compact binary mergers. To address these challenges, we present a pipeline strategy leveraging minimally modeled waveform reconstruction to identify the presence of eccentricity in real time. Using injections (40M⊙ binary black hole signals), we demonstrate that ignoring eccentricity (with values larger than ∼0.15 estimated at 20 Hz (e20)) leads to significant biases in parameter recovery, including chirp mass estimates falling outside the 90% credible interval. Waveform reconstruction shows that inconsistencies increase with eccentricity, and this behavior is consistent for different mass ratios. Our method enables low-latency inferences of binary properties supporting targeted follow-up analyses and can be applied to identify any physical effect of measurable strength. 

Orbital eccentricity in compact binary mergers carries crucial information about the binary’s formation and environment. There are emerging signs that some of the mergers detected by the LIGO and Virgo gravitational wave detectors could indeed be eccentric. Nevertheless, the identification of eccentricity via gravitational waves remains challenging, to a large extent because of the limited availability of eccentric gravitational waveforms. While multiple suites of eccentric waveforms have recently been developed, they each cover only a part of the binary parameter space. Here we evaluate the sensitivity of LIGO to eccentric waveforms from the SXS and RIT numerical relativity catalogs and the TEOBResumS-Dali waveform model using data from LIGO-Virgo-Kagra’s third observing run. The obtained sensitivities, as functions of eccentricity, mass and mass ratio, are important inputs to understanding detection prospects and observational population constrains. In addition, our results enable the comparison of the waveforms to establish their compatibility and applicability for searches and parameter estimation.