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Authors: Duncan A. Brown, Jeandrew Brink, Hua Fang, Jonathan R. Gair, Chao Li, Geoffrey Lovelace, Ilya Mandel, Kip S. Thorne

Date: 11 Dec 2006

Abstract: We explore the prospects for Advanced LIGO to detect gravitational waves from neutron stars and stellar mass black holes spiraling into intermediate-mass ($M\sim 50 M_\odot$ to $350 M_\odot$) black holes. We estimate an event rate for such \emph{intermediate-mass-ratio inspirals} (IMRIs) of up to $\sim 10$--$30 \mathrm{yr}ˆ{-1}$. Our numerical simulations show that if the central body is not a black hole but its metric is stationary, axisymmetric, reflection symmetric and asymptotically flat then the waves will likely be tri-periodic, as for a black hole. We report generalizations of a theorem due to Ryan (1995) which suggest that the evolutions of the waves' three fundamental frequencies and of the complex amplitudes of their spectral components encode (in principle) a full map of the central body's metric, full details of the energy and angular momentum exchange between the central body and the orbit, and the time-evolving orbital elements. We estimate that Advanced LIGO can measure or constrain deviations of the central body from a Kerr black hole with modest but interesting accuracy.

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