Eccentricity without Measuring Eccentricity: Discriminating among Stellar Mass Black Hole Binary Formation Channels

Abstract

We show how the observable number of binaries in LISA is affected by eccentricity through its influence on the peak gravitational-wave frequency, enhanced binary number density required to produce the LIGO observed rate, and the reduced signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) for an eccentric event. We also demonstrate how these effects should make it possible to learn about the eccentricity distribution and formation channels by counting the number of binaries as a function of frequency, even with no explicit detection of eccentricity. We also provide a simplified calculation for S/N of eccentric binaries.