Gravitational wave memory of primordial black hole mergers

The gravitational wave signal of binary compact objects has two main contributions at frequencies below the characteristic merger frequency; the gravitational wave signal associated with the early inspiral stage of the binary and the nonlinear gravitational wave memory. We compare the sensitivity of upcoming gravitational wave detectors to these two contributions, with a particular interest in events with a merger phase at frequencies higher than the detector’s peak sensitivity. We demonstrate that for light primordial black holes, current and upcoming detectors are more sensitive to the inspiral signal. Our analysis incorporates the evolution history of primordial black hole binaries, key to accurately estimating the relevant event rates. We also discuss the waveform templates of the memory signal at ground- and space-based interferometers, and the implications for a matched filtering search. This allows us to compare the sensitivity of high-frequency gravitational wave detectors, sensitive to the merger phase, with the sensitivity of existing interferometers.