LISA OBSERVATIONS OF INSPIRALING MASSIVE BINARY BLACK HOLES

In the 2030s LISA will be the first space-based gravitational wave detector, observing a new portion of the gravitational wave frequency spectrum. In this project, we found the approximate number of detectable massive binary black holes that do not evolve past the inspiraling phase during the time LISA is observing. My poster describes the process we used to create the systems of massive binary black holes and the calculation of the LISA detectability based on the signal-to-noise ratio. We used Illustris, a cosmological simulation, to model the population of massive binary black hole systems. Then we used the Monte Carlo method to create 8000 statistical copies, which allow us to model the expected possible range of MBH catalogs that LISA might detect. In this study, we considered 4 possible LISA configurations: the current "Proposed LISA" configuration observing for 4 and 10 years and Classic LISA configuration observing for 4 and 10 years. This study allows us to understand the possible astrophysical populations of massive black hole binaries, and how our design of LISA will allow us to probe and understand those populations.