Katelyn Breivik

DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN FORMATION CHANNELS FOR BINARY BLACK HOLES WITH LISA

The recent detections of GW150914 and GW151226 imply an abundance of stellar-mass binary-black-hole mergers in the local universe. While ground-based gravitational-wave detectors are limited to observing the final moments before a binary merges, space-based detectors, such as the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), can observe binaries at lower orbital frequencies where such systems may still encode information about their formation histories. In particular, the orbital eccentricity and mass of binary black holes in the LISA frequency band can be used together to discriminate between binaries formed in isolation in galactic fields and those formed in dense stellar environments such as globular clusters. In this letter, we explore the orbital eccentricity and mass of binary-black-hole populations as they evolve through the LISA frequency band. Overall we find that there are two distinct populations discernible by LISA. We show that up to ~90% of binaries formed either dynamically or in isolation have eccentricities measurable by LISA. Finally, we note how measured eccentricities of low-mass binary black holes evolved in isolation could provide detailed constraints on the physics of black-hole natal kicks and common-envelope evolution.

Characterizing Accreting Double White Dwarf Binaries with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna and Gaia

We demonstrate a method to fully characterize mass-transferring double white dwarf (DWD) systems with a helium-rich (He) WD donor based on the mass--radius relationship for He WDs. Using a simulated Galactic population of DWDs, we show that donor and accretor masses can be inferred for up to

Accreting Double White Dwarf Binaries: Implications for LISA

\sim\, 60

Revealing black holes with Gaia

systems observed by both Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) and Gaia. Half of these systems will have mass constraints

LISA Sources in Milky Way Globular Clusters

\Delta\,M_{\rm{D}}\lesssim0.2M_{\odot}

Constraining Black Hole Formation with 2M05215658+4359220.

and

Music of the Spheres: the gravitational wave signal from exoplanets

\Delta\,M_{\rm{A}}\lesssim2.3\,M_{\odot}

Characterizing accreting double white dwarf binaries with LISA and Gaia

. We also show how the orbital frequency evolution due to astrophysical processes and gravitational radiation can be decoupled from the total orbital frequency evolution for up to

Double white dwarf binaries accreting through direct-impact: Implications for LISA

\sim 50

Studying Variance in the Galactic Ultra-compact Binary Population

of these systems.