Globular clusters are considered to be likely breeding grounds for compact binary mergers. In this paper, we demonstrate how the gravitational-wave signals produced by compact object mergers can act as tracers of globular cluster formation and evolution. Globular cluster formation is a long-standing mystery in astrophysics, with multiple competing theories describing when and how globular clusters formed. The limited sensitivity of electromagnetic telescopes inhibits our ability to directly observe globular cluster formation. However, with future audio-band detectors sensitive out to redshifts of z ≈ 50 for GW150914-like signals, gravitational-wave astronomy will enable us to probe the Universe when the first globular clusters formed. We simulate a population of binary black hole mergers from theoretically motivated globular cluster formation models, and construct redshift measurements consistent with the predicted accuracy of third-generation detectors. We show that we can locate the peak time of a cluster formation epoch during reionization to within 0.05 Gyr after 1 yr of observations. The peak of a formation epoch that coincides with the Universal star formation rate can be measured to within 0.4–10.5 Gyr after 1 yr of observations, depending on the relative weighting of the model components.

中文翻译：

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引力波作为球状星团形成和演化的探针

球状星团被认为是紧凑型二元合并的可能滋生地。在本文中，我们展示了致密天体合并产生的引力波信号如何作为球状星团形成和演化的示踪剂。球状星团的形成是天体物理学中一个长期存在的谜团，有多种相互竞争的理论描述了球状星团的形成时间和方式。电磁望远镜有限的灵敏度抑制了我们直接观察球状星团形成的能力。然而，随着未来的音频探测器对类似 GW150914 的信号的 z ≈ 50 红移敏感，引力波天文学将使我们能够在第一个球状星团形成时探测宇宙。我们从理论上驱动的球状星团形成模型中模拟了一组二元黑洞合并，并构建了与第三代探测器的预测精度一致的红移测量值。我们表明，经过 1 年的观测，我们可以将再电离期间星团形成时期的峰值时间定位在 0.05 Gyr 以内。与宇宙恒星形成速率一致的形成时期的峰值可以在 1 年的观测后测量到 0.4-10.5 Gyr，这取决于模型组件的相对权重。