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arXiv · 1909.07104

The LISA-Taiji network: precision localization of massive black hole binaries

Abstract

A space-based gravitational-wave detector, LISA, consists of a triangle of three spacecrafts with a separation distance of 2.5 million kilometers in a heliocentric orbit behind the Earth. Like LISA, Taiji is compose of a triangle of three spacecrafts with a separation distance of 3 million kilometers in a heliocentric orbit ahead of the Earth. They are expected to launch in 2030-2035. Assuming a one-year overlap, we propose the LISA-Taiji network in space to fast and accurately localize the gravitational-wave sources. We use the Fisher information matrix approach to analyze the sky localization for coalescing massive black hole binaries. For an equal-mass black hole binary located at redshift of 1 with a total intrinsic mass of $10^5 M_{\odot}$, the LISA-Taiji network may achieves about four orders of magnitude improvement on the event localization region compared to an individual detector. The precision measurement of sky location from the gravitational-wave signal may completely identify the host galaxy with low redshifts prior to the final black hole merger. Such the identification of the host galaxy is helpful for the follow-up change in electromagnetic emissions of the accretion disk when the massive black hole binary merges to a single massive black hole, and enables the coalescing massive black hole binaries to be used as a standard siren.

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BibTeXRIS

Wen-Hong Ruan, Chang Liu, Zong-Kuan Guo, Yue-Liang Wu, Rong-Gen Cai. 2019-10-14. The LISA-Taiji network: precision localization of massive black hole binaries. https://doi.org/10.34133/2021%2F6014164

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