High Frequency Gravitational Waves from Supermassive Black Holes: Prospects for LIGO-Virgo Detections

It is commonly assumed that ground-based gravitational wave (GW) instruments will not be sensitive to supermassive black holes (SMBHs) because the characteristic GW frequencies are far below the ~ 10 - 1000 Hz sensitivity bands of terrestrial detectors. Here, however, we explore the possibility of SMBH gravitational waves to leak to higher frequencies. In particular, if the high frequency spectral tail asymptotes to h(f) ~ f^{-alpha}, where alpha<=2, then the spectral amplitude is a constant or ...