title: Spectroscopy of Kerr Black Holes with Earth- and Space-Based Interferometers.
abstract: We estimate the potential of present and future interferometric gravitational-wave detectors to test the Kerr nature of black holes through "gravitational spectroscopy," i.e., the measurement of multiple quasinormal mode frequencies from the remnant of a black hole merger. Using population synthesis models of the formation and evolution of stellar-mass black hole binaries, we find that Voyager-class interferometers will be necessary to perform these tests. Gravitational spectroscopy in the local Universe may become routine with the Einstein Telescope, but a 40-km facility like Cosmic Explorer is necessary to go beyond z∼3. In contrast, detectors like eLISA (evolved Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) should carry out a few-or even hundreds-of these tests every year, depending on uncertainties in massive black hole formation models. Many space-based spectroscopical measurements will occur at high redshift, testing the strong gravity dynamics of Kerr black holes in domains where cosmological corrections to general relativity (if they occur in nature) must be significant.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Mississippi, University, Mississippi 38677, USA.|CENTRA, Departamento de Física, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Avenida Rovisco Pais 1, 1049 Lisboa, Portugal.
authors.forename: Emanuele
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Berti
authors.affiliation: School of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sesana
authors.affiliation: Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Université Paris 6, UMR 7095, Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, 98 bis Bd Arago, 75014 Paris, France.|CNRS, UMR 7095, Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, 98 bis Bd Arago, 75014 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Enrico
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Barausse
authors.affiliation: CENTRA, Departamento de Física, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Avenida Rovisco Pais 1, 1049 Lisboa, Portugal.|Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, 31 Caroline Street North Waterloo, Ontario N2L 2Y5, Canada.
authors.forename: Vitor
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Cardoso
authors.affiliation: Astronomical Observatory, Warsaw University, Aleje Ujazdowskie 4, 00-478 Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Krzysztof
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Belczynski