Calibrating the binary black hole population in nuclear star clusters
  through tidal disruption events
  As the sensitivity of gravitational wave (GW) instruments improves and new
networks start operating, hundreds of merging stellar-mass black holes (SBHs)
and intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) are expected to be observed in the
next few years. The origin and distribution of SBH and IMBH binaries in various
dynamical environments is a fundamental scientific question in GW astronomy. In
this paper, we discuss ways tidal disruption events (TDEs) may provide a unique
electromagnetic window into the assembly and merger of binary SBHs and IMBHs in
nuclear star clusters (NSCs). We discuss how the host NSC mass and density and
the slope of the black-hole mass function set the orbital properties and the
masses of the binaries that undergo a TDE. For typical NSC properties, we
predict a TDE rate of $\sim 10^{-6}$--$10^{-7}\ {\rm yr}^{-1}$ per galaxy. The
lightcurve of TDEs in NSCs could be interrupted and modulated by the companion
black hole on the orbital period of the binary. These should be readily
detectable by optical transient surveys such as the Zwicky Transient Facility
and LSST.
