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Autori principali: Lyu, Xiangyu, Li, En-Kun, Shi, Changfu, Hu, Yi-Ming
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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Accesso online:https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.10204
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author Lyu, Xiangyu
Li, En-Kun
Shi, Changfu
Hu, Yi-Ming
author_facet Lyu, Xiangyu
Li, En-Kun
Shi, Changfu
Hu, Yi-Ming
contents Massive black holes surrounded by a gaseous disk have been a prevailing model to explain a wide spectrum of astrophysical phenomena related to active galactic nucle (AGNs). However, direct and precise measurements of the disk density profiles remain elusive for current telescopes. In this work, we demonstrate that it is possible to pinpoint the gas density if an inspiralling stellar mass binary black hole is embedded in the AGN disk. Furthermore, if the barycenter of the pair follows an eccentric orbit around an AGN, then space-borne gravitational wave detectors can measure the density of the surrounding disk with multi-year observations by tracking the gravitational wave evolution. The error between the inferred density profile and the injected truth can be constrained to below $2\times10^{-11}\rm g/cm^3$. Our work opens up an exciting new channel to investigate the very center of galaxies, where disk gas density distributions $ρ(r)$ can be recovered by analyzing time-dependent environmental imprints in gravitational waveforms.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_10204
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Probing AGN Disks Density Profiles through Gravitational Wave Observations
Lyu, Xiangyu
Li, En-Kun
Shi, Changfu
Hu, Yi-Ming
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Massive black holes surrounded by a gaseous disk have been a prevailing model to explain a wide spectrum of astrophysical phenomena related to active galactic nucle (AGNs). However, direct and precise measurements of the disk density profiles remain elusive for current telescopes. In this work, we demonstrate that it is possible to pinpoint the gas density if an inspiralling stellar mass binary black hole is embedded in the AGN disk. Furthermore, if the barycenter of the pair follows an eccentric orbit around an AGN, then space-borne gravitational wave detectors can measure the density of the surrounding disk with multi-year observations by tracking the gravitational wave evolution. The error between the inferred density profile and the injected truth can be constrained to below $2\times10^{-11}\rm g/cm^3$. Our work opens up an exciting new channel to investigate the very center of galaxies, where disk gas density distributions $ρ(r)$ can be recovered by analyzing time-dependent environmental imprints in gravitational waveforms.
title Probing AGN Disks Density Profiles through Gravitational Wave Observations
topic High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.10204