Search for Eccentric Binary Black Hole Mergers with Gravitational Waves

Since the first gravitational wave detection in 2015, LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA have detected a total of 90 signals from binary black hole and neutron star mergers. Despite the large number of observations, the astrophysical origin of these binary black hole systems still remains undetermined. Binary black holes primarily originate from two types of environments: when two stars evolve together in isolation, undergo supernovae and form a binary black hole system that coalesces within the age of the Universe, and when two black holes become bound due to strong gravitational interactions in dense environments like globular clusters and young star clusters. Several hints can be found in the properties of the two black holes that help us determine which of these two environments the binary formed and merged in. One distinguishing feature between gravitational waves originating from these two environments is the orbital eccentricity of the binary since this leaves a unique imprint on the morphology of the signal. In my presentation, I will talk about why the detection of gravitational wave signals from eccentric binary black holes is challenging, how LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) mitigates these challenges, and our sensitivity to such sources. I will also briefly discuss the dependence of LVK's search sensitivity on the source properties of the binary black hole system.