Observing Eccentricity Oscillations of Binary Black Holes in LISA

Understand

The tidal force from a third body near a binary system could introduce long-term oscillations in the binary's eccentricity, known as Kozai-Lidov oscillations.

• We show that the Kozai-Lidov oscillations of stellar-mass black hole binaries have the potential to be observed by LISA.
• Detections of such binaries will give insights into binary formation channels and also provide an important benchmark of observing Kozai-Lidov oscillations directly.