| Title: |
Inference on inner galaxy structure via gravitational waves from supermassive binaries |
| Authors: |
Chen, Yifan; Daniel, Matthias; D’Orazio, Daniel J.; Fan, Xuanye; Mitridate, Andrea; Sagunski, Laura; Xue, Xiao; Young, Olivia; Wright, David; Witt, Caitlin A.; Wahl, Haley M.; Vigeland, Sarah J.; van Haasteren, Rutger; Vallisneri, Michele; Ünal, Caner; Turner, Jacob E.; Taylor, Stephen R.; Taylor, Jacob; Swiggum, Joseph K.; Susobhanan, Abhimanyu; Stovall, Kevin; Stinebring, Daniel R.; Stairs, Ingrid H.; Sosa Fiscella, Sophia V.; Siwek, Magdalena S.; Simon, Joseph; Siemens, Xavier; Shapiro-Albert, Brent J.; Schmitz, Kai; Schmiedekamp, Carl; Schmiedekamp, Ann; Sardesai, Shashwat C.; Saffer, Alexander; Runnoe, Jessie C.; Romano, Joseph D.; Ray, Paul S.; Ransom, Scott M.; Radovan, Henri A.; Pol, Nihan S.; Petrov, Polina; Perera, Benetge B. P.; Pennucci, Timothy T.; Olum, Ken D.; Ocker, Stella Koch; Nice, David J.; Ng, Cherry; Mingarelli, Chiara M. F.; Meyers, Patrick M.; Meyers, Bradley W.; McMann, Natasha; McLaughlin, Maura A.; McKee, James W.; McEwen, Alexander; Madison, Dustin R.; Ma, Chung-Pei; Lynch, Ryan S.; Luo, Jing; Lorimer, Duncan R.; Liu, Tingting; Lewandowska, Natalia; Lazio, T. Joseph W.; Larsen, Bjorn; Lamb, William G.; Lam, Michael T.; Laal, Nima; Key, Joey S.; Kerr, Matthew; Kelley, Luke Zoltan; Kaplan, David L.; Jones, Megan L.; Johnson, Aaron D.; Jennings, Ross J.; Hazboun, Jeffrey S.; Gültekin, Kayhan; Good, Deborah C.; Glaser, Joseph; Gersbach, Kyle A.; Gentile, Peter A.; Garver-Daniels, Nate; Gardiner, Emiko C.; Freedman, Gabriel E.; Fonseca, Emmanuel; Fiore, William; Ferrara, Elizabeth C.; Dolch, Timothy; Dey, Lankeswar; Deng, Heling; Demorest, Paul B.; DeCesar, Megan E.; Crowter, Kathryn; Cromartie, H. Thankful; Crawford, Fronefield; Cornish, Neil J.; Cordes, James M.; Cohen, Tyler; Chatterjee, Shami; Charisi, Maria; Casey-Clyde, J. Andrew; Burnette, Rand; Burke-Spolaor, Sarah; Brook, Paul R.; Brazier, Adam; Blecha, Laura; Bécsy, Bence; Baker, Paul T.; Baier, Jeremy G.; Arzoumanian, Zaven; Archibald, Anne M.; Anumarlapudi, Akash; Agazie, Gabriella |
| Publication Year: |
2026 |
| Description: |
The detection of a stochastic gravitational wave background by pulsar-timing arrays indicates the presence of a population of supermassive black hole binaries. Although the observed spectrum generally matches predictions for orbital evolution driven by gravitational-wave emission in circular orbits, there is a preference for a spectral turnover at the lowest observed frequencies, which may point to substantial hardening during a transition from early environmental influences to later stages dominated by emission. In the vicinity of these binaries, the ejection of stars or dark matter particles through gravitational three-body slingshots efficiently extracts orbital energy, leading to a low-frequency turnover in the spectrum. Here we model how the gravitational-wave spectrum depends on the initial inner galactic profile before scouring by binary ejections while accounting for a range of initial binary eccentricities. By analysing the NANOGrav 15-year data, we find that a parsec-scale galactic-centre density of around 106 M⊙ pc−3 is favoured across most of the parameter space, thus shedding light on the environmental effects that shape black hole evolution and the combined matter density near galaxy centres. |
| Document Type: |
article in journal/newspaper |
| File Description: |
application/pdf |
| Language: |
unknown |
| Relation: |
Chen Y., Daniel M., D’Orazio D. J., Fan X., Mitridate A., Sagunski L., Xue X., Young O., Wright D., Witt C. A., et al., "Inference on inner galaxy structure via gravitational waves from supermassive binaries", Nature Astronomy, 2026; 105030871034; https://hdl.handle.net/11511/118985; WOS:001680521100001 |
| DOI: |
10.1038/s41550-026-02782-0 |
| Availability: |
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/118985; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-026-02782-0 |
| Rights: |
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International ; http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ |
| Accession Number: |
edsbas.7B3F8A8B |
| Database: |
BASE |