Detection of Gravitational Waves from the Coalescence of Population III Remnants with Advanced LIGO

Abstract

The comoving mass density of massive black hole (MBH) remnants from pregalactic star formation could have been similar in magnitude to the mass density of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in the present-day universe. We show that the fraction of MBHs that coalesce during the assembly of SMBHs can be extracted from the rate of ring-down gravitational waves that are detectable by the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO). Based on the SMBH formation history inferred from the evolution of the quasar luminosity function, we show that an observed event rate of 1 yr(-1) will constrain the SMBH mass fraction that was contributed by MBH coalescence down to a level of similar to10(-6) for 20 M-circle dot MBH remnants (or similar to10(-4) for 260 M-circle dot remnants).