Measuring Intermediate-Mass Black-Hole Binaries with Advanced Gravitational Wave Detectors

Veitch, J.; Pürrer, M.; Mandel, Ilya

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.115.141101

Cited by 49 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…The transition from being inspiral dominated to being merger and ringdown dominated depends upon the sensitivity of the detector network as a function of frequency; GW150914 had SNR approximately equally split between the inspiral and post-inspiral phases [41]. Information about the masses is encoded in different ways in the different parts of the waveform: The inspiral predominantly constrains the chirp mass [70,88,89], and the ringdown is more sensitive to the total mass [90]; hence, the bestmeasured parameters depend upon the mass [91][92][93]. This is illustrated in the posterior probability distributions for the three events in Fig.…”

Section: A Massesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Binary Black Hole Mergers in the First Advanced LIGO Observing Run

Abbott¹,

Abbott²,

Abbott³

et al. 2016

Phys. Rev. X

1,206

1,383

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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.

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Section: A Massesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Binary Black Hole Mergers in the First Advanced LIGO Observing Run

Abbott¹,

Abbott²,

Abbott³

et al. 2016

Phys. Rev. X

1,206

1,383

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“…A single GW detection of an IMBHB merger could provide the first conclusive proof of the existence of IMBHs in the Universe [91][92][93]. Multiple detections, where astrophysically important parameters, such as mass and spin, are measured, would allow us to make statements not only on the formation and evolutionary channels of IMBHs but also on their link with other observed phenomena.…”

Section: Astrophysical Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Search for intermediate mass black hole binaries in the first observing run of Advanced LIGO

Abbott

Jawahar

Lockerbie³

et al. 2017

Phys. Rev. D

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During their first observational run, the two Advanced LIGO detectors attained an unprecedented sensitivity, resulting in the first direct detections of gravitational-wave signals produced by stellar-mass binary black hole systems. This paper reports on an all-sky search for gravitational waves (GWs) from merging intermediate mass black hole binaries (IMBHBs). The combined results from two independent search techniques were used in this study: the first employs a matched-filter algorithm that uses a bank of filters covering the GW signal parameter space, while the second is a generic search for GW transients (bursts). No GWs from IMBHBs were detected; therefore, we constrain the rate of several classes of IMBHB mergers. The most stringent limit is obtained for black holes of individual mass 100 M ⊙ , with spins aligned with the binary orbital angular momentum. For such systems, the merger rate is constrained to be less than 0.93 Gpc −3 yr −1 in comoving units at the 90% confidence level, an improvement of nearly 2 orders of magnitude over previous upper limits.

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“…For greater M total the SNR becomes increasingly dominated by the merger and ringdown; the properties of the ringdown depend only on M total and the spin of the final BH a f (cf. Graff et al 2015;Veitch et al 2015b). High-mass systems, M total 200 M , …”

Section: Key Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In order to infer the presence of an IMBH in an IMRAC, we need to be able to claim that m1 is greater than a fiducial threshold MIMBH at a desired confidence level. Here, we follow Veitch et al (2015b) and adopt a threshold mass MIMBH 100 M .…”

Section: Effects Of Cosmology On Inferring the Presence Of An Imbhmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inference on Gravitational Waves from Coalescences of Stellar-Mass Compact Objects and Intermediate-Mass Black Holes

Haster¹

2017

Globular Cluster Binaries and Gravitational Wave Parameter Estimation

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Gravitational waves from coalescences of neutron stars or stellar-mass black holes into intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) of 100 solar masses represent one of the exciting possible sources for advanced gravitational-wave detectors. These sources can provide definitive evidence for the existence of IMBHs, probe globular-cluster dynamics, and potentially serve as tests of general relativity. We analyse the accuracy with which we can measure the masses and spins of the IMBH and its companion in intermediate-mass ratio coalescences. We find that we can identify an IMBH with a mass above 100 M with 95% confidence provided the massive body exceeds 130 M . For source masses above ∼ 200 M , the best measured parameter is the frequency of the quasi-normal ringdown. Consequently, the total mass is measured better than the chirp mass for massive binaries, but the total mass is still partly degenerate with spin, which cannot be accurately measured. Low-frequency detector sensitivity is particularly important for massive sources, since sensitivity to the inspiral phase is critical for measuring the mass of the stellar-mass companion. We show that we can accurately infer source parameters for cosmologically redshifted signals by applying appropriate corrections. We investigate the impact of uncertainty in the model gravitational waveforms and conclude that our main results are likely robust to systematics.

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Measuring Intermediate-Mass Black-Hole Binaries with Advanced Gravitational Wave Detectors

Cited by 49 publications

References 45 publications

Binary Black Hole Mergers in the First Advanced LIGO Observing Run

Binary Black Hole Mergers in the First Advanced LIGO Observing Run

Search for intermediate mass black hole binaries in the first observing run of Advanced LIGO

Inference on Gravitational Waves from Coalescences of Stellar-Mass Compact Objects and Intermediate-Mass Black Holes

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