Source Confusion of Massive Black Hole Binaries for the Taiji Mission

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Diao, Qing, Wang, Hongxin, Liang, Manjia, Wang, He, Luo, Ziren, Du, Minghui, Xu, Peng
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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_version_ 1866908642420195328
author Diao, Qing
Wang, Hongxin
Liang, Manjia
Wang, He
Luo, Ziren
Du, Minghui
Xu, Peng
author_facet Diao, Qing
Wang, Hongxin
Liang, Manjia
Wang, He
Luo, Ziren
Du, Minghui
Xu, Peng
contents We systematically investigate the source confusion of massive black hole binaries (MBHBs) for the Taiji space-based gravitational wave mission. Source confusion, arising from the overlap of signals in both time and frequency domains, can degrade parameter recovery accuracy. To assess this effect, we simulate three representative models MBHB populations to estimate event overlap events. Assuming 100 detections per year, only 0.31-4.2 overlaps are expected annually. Based on Fisher information matrix with the $\texttt{IMRPhenomD}$ and $\texttt{IMRPhenomHM}$ waveform models, we find that overlap significantly enlarges parameter uncertainties, while the inclusion of higher-order modes (HMs) effectively mitigates this effect. Severe confusion ($Δ\mathcal{M}_z / \mathcal{M}_z<$ 0.2%) occurs in fewer than 0.14% across the three population models. The full Bayesian analysis further corroborates the Fisher predictions, and also reveals that HMs help break key parameter degeneracies, with or without signal overlap. These findings underscore the importance of incorporating HMs for accurate inference in future space-based observations.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_09679
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Source Confusion of Massive Black Hole Binaries for the Taiji Mission
Diao, Qing
Wang, Hongxin
Liang, Manjia
Wang, He
Luo, Ziren
Du, Minghui
Xu, Peng
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
We systematically investigate the source confusion of massive black hole binaries (MBHBs) for the Taiji space-based gravitational wave mission. Source confusion, arising from the overlap of signals in both time and frequency domains, can degrade parameter recovery accuracy. To assess this effect, we simulate three representative models MBHB populations to estimate event overlap events. Assuming 100 detections per year, only 0.31-4.2 overlaps are expected annually. Based on Fisher information matrix with the $\texttt{IMRPhenomD}$ and $\texttt{IMRPhenomHM}$ waveform models, we find that overlap significantly enlarges parameter uncertainties, while the inclusion of higher-order modes (HMs) effectively mitigates this effect. Severe confusion ($Δ\mathcal{M}_z / \mathcal{M}_z<$ 0.2%) occurs in fewer than 0.14% across the three population models. The full Bayesian analysis further corroborates the Fisher predictions, and also reveals that HMs help break key parameter degeneracies, with or without signal overlap. These findings underscore the importance of incorporating HMs for accurate inference in future space-based observations.
title Source Confusion of Massive Black Hole Binaries for the Taiji Mission
topic General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.09679