Binary radial velocity measurements with space-based gravitational-wave detectors

Abstract

Unlike traditional electromagnetic measurements, gravitational-wave observations are not affected by crowding and extinction. For this reason, compact object binaries orbiting around a massive black hole can be used as probes of the inner environment of the black hole in regions inaccessible to traditional astronomical measurements. The orbit of the binary's barycentre around the massive black hole will cause a Doppler shift in the gravitational waveform, which is in principle measurable by future space-based gravitational-wave interferometers, such as the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). We investigate the conditions under which these Doppler shifts are observable by LISA. Our results imply that Doppler shift observations can be used to study the central region of globular clusters in the Milky Way, as well the central environment of extragalactic massive black holes.