First gravitational-wave burst GW150914: MASTER optical follow-up observations

Abstract

The Advanced LIGO observatory recently reported the first direct detection of gravitational waves predicted by Einstein (1916). We report on the first optical observations of the Gravitational Wave (GW) source GW150914 error region with the Global MASTER Robotic Net. We detected several optical transients, which proved to be unconnected with the GW event. Our result is consistent with the assumption that gravitational waves were produced by a binary black hole merger. The detection of the event confirmed the main prediction of the population synthesis performed with the "Scenario Machine" formulated in Lipunov1997b.

Black Hole and Neutron Star Binary Mergers in Triple Systems: Merger Fraction and Spin–Orbit Misalignment

“…The formation channels of merging BH binaries can be broadly divided into two categories: isolated binary evolution and dynamical formation, corresponding to different ways of bringing widely separated BHs into sufficiently close orbits to allow gravitational-radiation driven binary coalescence. In the isolated binary evolution scenario, massive stellar binaries formed with relatively small separations ( 10 AU) are tighten in or-bit by the drag forces through common-envelop phases (e.g., Lipunov et al 1997Lipunov et al , 2017Podsiadlowski et al 2003;Belczynski et al 2010Belczynski et al , 2016Dominik et al 2012Dominik et al , 2013Dominik et al , 2015 or through chemically homogeneous evolution associated with rapid stellar rotations (e.g., Mandel & de Mink 2016;Marchant et al 2016). The dynamical formation mechanism includes various "flavors", all involving gravitational interactions between multiple stars/BHs.…”

Spin–Orbit Misalignment of Merging Black Hole Binaries with Tertiary Companions

“…The recent breakthrough in the detection of gravitational waves (GWs) from merging black hole (BH) binaries by advanced LIGO (Abbott et al 2016a(Abbott et al ,b, 2017 has generated renewed interest in understanding the formation mechanisms of compact BH binaries, from the evolution of massive stellar binaries (Lipunov et al 1997;Belczynski et al 2010Belczynski et al , 2016Mandel & de Mink 2016;Lipunov et al 2017) and triples (Silsbee & Tremaine 2017;Antonini et al 2017) in the galactic fields, to dynamical interactions in galactic nuclei (Antonini & Perets 2012;Petrovich & Antonini 2017) and in the dense core of globular clusters (Miller & Hamilton 2002;Rodriguez et al 2015;Chatterjee et al 2017).…”

Black Hole and Neutron Star Binary Mergers in Triple Systems. II. Merger Eccentricity and Spin–Orbit Misalignment

“…Given the expected large number of BH mergers to be detected by LIGO/VIRGO in the coming years, it will be important to distinguish tertiary-induced merg-ers from other dynamical BH binary formation channels (such as those involving close encounters in dense stellar clusters; e.g., Portegies Zwart & McMillan 2000;Miller & Lauburg 2009;O'Leary et al 2006;Banerjee et al 2010;Downing et al 2010;Rodriguez et al 2015;Chatterjee et al 2017;) and the more traditional isolated binary channels (e.g., Lipunov et al 1997Lipunov et al , 2017Podsiadlowski et al 2003;Belczynski et al 2010Belczynski et al , 2016Dominik et al 2012Dominik et al , 2013Dominik et al , 2015. One possible indicator is the merger eccentricity: It has been noted that dynamical binary-single interactions in dense cluster (e.g., Samsing & Ramirez-Ruiz 2017; or in galactic triples (Silsbee & Tremaine 2017) may lead to BH binaries entering the LIGO band with modest or large eccentricities, although the fraction of such eccentric mergers is highly uncertain.…”