Tootfinder

GW200208_222617 as an eccentric black-hole binary merger: properties and astrophysical implications
Isobel Romero-Shaw, Jakob Stegmann, Hiromichi Tagawa, Davide Gerosa, Johan Samsing, Nihar Gupte, Stephen R. Green
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.17105

GW200208_222617 as an eccentric black-hole binary merger: properties and astrophysical implications
Detecting orbital eccentricity in a stellar-mass black-hole merger would point to a non-isolated formation channel. Eccentric binaries can form in dense stellar environments such as globular clusters or active galactic nuclei, or from triple stellar systems in the Galactic field. However, confidently measuring eccentricity is challenging -- short signals from high-mass eccentric mergers can mimic spin-induced precession, making the two effects hard to disentangle. This degeneracy weakens consid…