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Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Probing Globular Clusters using Gravitational Waves from Inspiraling Stellar-mass Binary Black Holes in Space-based Detector

  • Jie Wu1,2
  • Yao Xiao3
  • Mengfei Sun1,2
  • Jin Li1,2,4
4 affiliations
  1. 1College of Physics, Chongqing University , Chongqing 401331 ,
  2. 2Chongqing University Department of Physics and Chongqing Key Laboratory for Strongly Coupled Physics, , Chongqing 401331 ,
  3. 3South-Western Institute for Astronomy Research , Yunnan University, Kunming 650500 ,
  4. 4Institute of Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Chongqing University , Chongqing 401331 ,
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Abstract

Globular clusters (GCs) serve as key environments for studying stellar dynamics and galactic structure, yet precise measurements of their distances and masses are often limited by uncertainties in electromagnetic (EM) observations. We present a method that uses gravitational waves (GWs) from inspiralling stellar-mass binary black holes (BBHs) orbiting within GCs to improve the precision of GC parameter measurements. The BBH’s circular motion around the GC produces a moving-source effect, including Doppler shifts and relativistic corrections, which leaves measurable imprints on the GW signal. We model these signals using post-Newtonian waveforms and apply Lorentz transformations to compute the waveform from the moving BBHs. The information encoded in the modulated waveform is quantified with the Fisher information matrix, allowing us to extract GC parameters and combine them with EM measurements. Our results show that incorporating GW observations can substantially improve distance constraints for nearby Milky Way GCs, while the improvement in mass constraints depends strongly on the BBH outer-orbit modulation. These findings demonstrate the value of BBHs as dynamical probes and highlight the role of GWs as complementary probes of GC properties, especially for nearby and strongly modulated systems.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{wu2026probing,
  title = {{Probing Globular Clusters using Gravitational Waves from Inspiraling Stellar-mass Binary Black Holes in Space-based Detector}},
  author = {Jie Wu and Yao Xiao and Mengfei Sun and Jin Li},
  journal = {Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.1093/mnras/stag1891},
  url = {https://academic.oup.com/mnras/advance-article/doi/10.1093/mnras/stag1891/8876090},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Probing Globular Clusters using Gravitational Waves from Inspiraling Stellar-mass Binary Black Holes in Space-based Detector
AU  - Jie Wu
AU  - Yao Xiao
AU  - Mengfei Sun
AU  - Jin Li
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/07
JO  - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
DO  - 10.1093/mnras/stag1891
UR  - https://academic.oup.com/mnras/advance-article/doi/10.1093/mnras/stag1891/8876090
AB  - Globular clusters (GCs) serve as key environments for studying stellar dynamics and galactic structure, yet precise measurements of their distances and masses are often limited by uncertainties in electromagnetic (EM) observations. We present a method that uses gravitational waves (GWs) from inspiralling stellar-mass binary black holes (BBHs) orbiting within GCs to improve the precision of GC parameter measurements. The BBH’s circular motion around the GC produces a moving-source effect, including Doppler shifts and relativistic corrections, which leaves measurable imprints on the GW signal. We model these signals using post-Newtonian waveforms and apply Lorentz transformations to compute the waveform from the moving BBHs. The information encoded in the modulated waveform is quantified with the Fisher information matrix, allowing us to extract GC parameters and combine them with EM measurements. Our results show that incorporating GW observations can substantially improve distance constraints for nearby Milky Way GCs, while the improvement in mass constraints depends strongly on the BBH outer-orbit modulation. These findings demonstrate the value of BBHs as dynamical probes and highlight the role of GWs as complementary probes of GC properties, especially for nearby and strongly modulated systems.
SN  - 0035-8711
SN  - 1365-2966
ER  -