Associating binary black holes with galactic centres using lensed gravitational waves

RESUMO

Binary black holes (BBHs) have been theorised to form through various different channels, but current LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) sky locations make the direct study of formation channels a challenge. Association of strongly lensed BBHs to their hosts has been shown to be possible with current detector networks at upgraded sensitivity and survey telescopes like Euclid, with localisations that can reach sub-galactic scales in the source plane. With Hubble Space Telescope-like high-resolution imaging, we report that strong-lensing localisation of BBHs allows us to confidently associate the BBH with specific structures within their host galaxies, specifically, galactic centres (GCs). We demonstrate that a BBH localised to the GC of the galaxy can reject light-tracing BBH populations ($p < 5\%$) in a single observation, and in most cases demonstrate high confidence rejection ($p < 1\%$), providing a conservative basis to exclude light-tracing spatial distributions associated with field-like or non-central formation channels. Such association therefore directly supports formation channels confined to GCs, such as active galactic nuclei and nuclear stellar clusters.