Binary Black Hole Mergers in the First Advanced LIGO Observing Run

Abstract

the first detections of gravitational waves from binary black hole mergers. In this paper, we present full results from a search for binary black hole merger signals with total masses up to 100M ⊙ and detailed implications from our observations of these systems. Our search, based on general-relativistic * Full author list given at the end of the article. † Deceased.Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI. BINARY BLACK HOLE MERGERS IN THE FIRST …PHYS. REV. X 6, 041015 (2016) 041015-5 models of gravitational-wave signals from binary black hole systems, unambiguously identified two signals, GW150914 and GW151226, with a significance of greater than 5σ over the observing period. It also identified a third possible signal, LVT151012, with substantially lower significance and with an 87% probability of being of astrophysical origin. We provide detailed estimates of the parameters of the observed systems. Both GW150914 and GW151226 provide an unprecedented opportunity to study the two-body motion of a compact-object binary in the large velocity, highly nonlinear regime. We do not observe any deviations from general relativity, and we place improved empirical bounds on several highorder post-Newtonian coefficients. From our observations, we infer stellar-mass binary black hole merger rates lying in the range 9-240 Gpc −3 yr −1 . These observations are beginning to inform astrophysical predictions of binary black hole formation rates and indicate that future observing runs of the Advanced detector network will yield many more gravitational-wave detections.

A recipe for echoes from exotic compact objects

“…Sðx; tÞ ¼ −rfðrÞρ lm ðx; tÞ; ðB1Þ constructed from the retarded (biscalar) Green's function g BH ðx; x 0 ; τÞ and the spherical harmonic components of the scalar charge density 4 The retarded Green's function obeys g BH ðx; x 0 ; t − t 0 Þ ¼ 0 when t − t 0 < jx − x 0 j and the differential equation…”

“…Observations of black holes are undergoing a revolution, with the advent of gravitational wave astronomy [2][3][4][5] and the promise of very-longbaseline radio observations of supermassive black holes by the Event Horizon Telescope [6,7]. While black holes are consistent with all electromagnetic and gravitational wave observations to date [4,5,[8][9][10], no experiment has been able probe spacetime near the event horizon [11][12][13]. Moreover, the event horizon is at the heart of the BH information paradox [14], and the role of black holes in a quantum theory of gravity is an open question.…”

LIGO and the opening of a unique observational window on the universe

“…Further, a third, less significant signal was detected on October 12, 2015, termed LIGO-Virgo Trigger (LVT)151012. Because the event had lower significance (1.7 , false alarm rate of ∼ 0.37 y À1 ), it could not be claimed as a detection; however, signal consistency tests show no signs of a noise origin-it is more likely to be of astrophysical origin than not (34).…”

“…The observations are in good agreement with the model (discussed in appendix C of ref. 34). GW150914 stands somewhat above the inferred distribution, as it is an unusually significant event-only 6% of the astrophysical population of sources appearing in the O1 search with a false rate of less than one per century are expected to be more significant than GW150914.…”

Les ondes gravitationnelles,cent ans après Einstein

“…On s'attend ainsi à ce que des milliers de trous noirs binaires d'origine stellaire soient détectables par 4. Limites supérieures sur les déviations à la prédiction de la relativité générale pour les paramètres postnewtoniens (qui sont connus jusqu'à l'ordre 3,5PN), en utilisant les observations combinées de GW150914 et GW151226 [8].…”