Francesco Iacovelli

Francesco Iacovelli

Assistant Research Scientist (Miller Postdoctoral Fellow) at Johns Hopkins University

Gravitational-wave parameter estimation to the Moon and back: massive binaries and the case of GW231123

Authors: F. Iacovelli, J. Tissino, J. Harms, E. Berti

Published:

Summary

LGWA has a high scientific potential and complementarity to ground-based observatories. We study the capability of this experiment to detect BBHs merging in the frequency band of current instruments, and to reconstruct the parameters of an event with the characteristics of GW231123. We find that LGWA can detect tens to hundreds of BBHs per year, and has interesting parameter estimation capabilities.

Abstract

We study the prospects of the Lunar Gravitational-Wave Antenna (LGWA), a proposed deci-Hz GW detector, to observe binary black holes (BBHs) and enable multiband science with ground-based detectors. We assess the detectability of the events observed by current instruments up to the GWTC-4.0 data release, and of simulated populations consistent with the latest reconstruction by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaboration. We find that LGWA alone would have been able to observe more than one third of the events detected so far, and that it could detect ∼90 events merging in the ground-based band per year out to redshifts z∼3–5. Current detectors at design sensitivity and 100% duty cycle could detect thousands of BBHs per year, with one to a few hundred multiband counterparts in LGWA. Third-generation (3G) detectors can observe most of the BBHs detected by LGWA merging in their frequency band in the simulated mass range 7 M⊙ ≲ Mtot ≲ 600 M⊙, enabling systematic joint analyses of hundreds of events. The short time to merger from the deci-Hz band to the Hz-kHz band (typically months to a year) allows for early warning, targeted follow-up, and archival searches. Multiband observations of intermediate-mass BBHs in the deci-Hz band are particularly promising. We perform an injection study for a GW231123-like system (the most massive BBH detection to date, which accumulates ∼105 inspiral cycles in LGWA) and show that deci-Hz observations can measure the chirp mass even better than 3G instruments and yield good sky localization and inclination measurement, even with a single observatory. Opening the deci-Hz band would substantially improve the prospects of GW astronomy for intermediate-mass BBHs.

arXiv: 2512.09978 [gr-qc]