We study gravitational wave (GW) emission in the strong-field regime by a hierarchical triple system composed of a binary system placed in the vicinity of a supermassive black hole (SMBH). The LIGO-Virgo Collaboration recently reported evidence for coalescences with this dynamical origin. These systems are common in galactic centers and thus, are a target for the space-based LISA mission as well as other advanced detectors. Doppler shifts, aberration, lensing, and strong amplitude modulations are features present in the GW signal from these systems, built into our framework and with no need for phenomenological patches. We find that the binary can resonantly excite the quasinormal modes of the SMBH, as in the resonant excitation of two tuning forks with matching frequencies. The flux of energy crossing the SMBH horizon can be significant, when compared with that from standard extreme-mass-ratio inspirals. Therefore, these triple systems are excellent probes of strong-field physics and of the BH nature of compact objects.

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• Astrophysical studies of gravity
• General relativity equations & solutions
• Gravitational waves
• Classical black holes
• Galactic nuclei & quasars