preprintThe Astrophysical Journal LettersMar 11, 2026GOLD OA

Orbital Eccentricity in a Neutron Star–Black Hole Merger

GMGonzalo MorrásGPG. PrattenPSP. Schmidt

Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics · Universidad Autónoma de Madrid · +1 more institution

Indexed inarxivcrossrefdatacitedoaj

Abstract

Abstract The observation of gravitational waves (GWs) from merging black holes and neutron stars provides a unique opportunity to discern information about their astrophysical environment. Two signatures that are considered powerful tracers to distinguish between different binary formation channels are general relativistic spin-induced orbital precession and orbital eccentricity. Both effects leave characteristic imprints in the GW signal that can be extracted from observations. To date, neither precession nor eccentricity has been confidently discerned in merging neutron star–black hole binaries. Here we report the measurement of orbital eccentricity in a neutron star–black hole merger. Using, for the first…

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Topics & keywords

Topics
Keywords
  • Neutron star
  • Precession
  • Eccentricity (behavior)
  • Black hole (networking)
  • Orbital eccentricity
  • Orbital period
  • Pulsar
  • Gravitational wave
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