Associating binary black holes with galactic centres using lensed gravitational waves
Abstract
Binary black holes (BBHs) have been theorised to form through various different channels, but current LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) sky locations make the direct study of formation channels a challenge. Association of strongly lensed BBHs to their hosts has been shown to be possible with current detector networks at upgraded sensitivity and survey telescopes like Euclid, with localisations that can reach sub-galactic scales in the source plane. With Hubble Space Telescope-like high-resolution imaging, we report that strong-lensing localisation of BBHs allows us to confidently associate the BBH with specific structures within their host galaxies, specifically, galactic centres (GCs). We demonstrate that a BBH localised to the GC of the galaxy can reject light-tracing BBH populations (p < 5%) in a single observation, and in most cases demonstrate high confidence rejection (p < 1%), providing a conservative basis to exclude light-tracing spatial distributions associated with field-like or non-central formation channels. Such association therefore directly supports formation channels confined to GCs, such as active galactic nuclei and nuclear stellar clusters.
Related
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- Comment on `Measuring the Hubble Constant Using Strongly Lensed Gravitational Wave Signals'
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- Probing Dark Matter with Strongly Lensed Binary Black Hole Mergers: Prospects in the Near Future
BibTeX
@misc{uronen2026associating,
title = {{Associating binary black holes with galactic centres using lensed gravitational waves}},
author = {Laura Uronen and Tian Li and Qiuhan He and Justin Janquart and Thomas Collett and Léon V. E. Koopmans and Otto Hannuksela},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.10285},
eprint = {2609.10285},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.10285},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Associating binary black holes with galactic centres using lensed gravitational waves
AU - Laura Uronen
AU - Tian Li
AU - Qiuhan He
AU - Justin Janquart
AU - Thomas Collett
AU - Léon V. E. Koopmans
AU - Otto Hannuksela
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/09
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.10285
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.10285
AB - Binary black holes (BBHs) have been theorised to form through various different channels, but current LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) sky locations make the direct study of formation channels a challenge. Association of strongly lensed BBHs to their hosts has been shown to be possible with current detector networks at upgraded sensitivity and survey telescopes like Euclid, with localisations that can reach sub-galactic scales in the source plane. With Hubble Space Telescope-like high-resolution imaging, we report that strong-lensing localisation of BBHs allows us to confidently associate the BBH with specific structures within their host galaxies, specifically, galactic centres (GCs). We demonstrate that a BBH localised to the GC of the galaxy can reject light-tracing BBH populations (p < 5%) in a single observation, and in most cases demonstrate high confidence rejection (p < 1%), providing a conservative basis to exclude light-tracing spatial distributions associated with field-like or non-central formation channels. Such association therefore directly supports formation channels confined to GCs, such as active galactic nuclei and nuclear stellar clusters.
ER -