Properties of the Binary Black Hole Merger GW150914
Abstract
On September 14, 2015, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) detected a gravitational-wave transient (GW150914); we characterize the properties of the source and its parameters. The data around the time of the event were analyzed coherently across the LIGO network using a suite of accurate waveform models that describe gravitational waves from a compact binary system in general relativity. GW150914 was produced by a nearly equal mass binary black hole of masses 3 6-4+5M⊙ and 2 9-4+4M⊙ ; for each parameter we report the median value and the range of the 90% credible interval. The dimensionless spin magnitude of the more massive black hole is bound to be <0.7 (at 90% probability). The luminosity distance to the source is 41 0-180+160 Mpc , corresponding to a redshift 0.0 9-0.04+0.03 assuming standard cosmology. The source location is constrained to an annulus section of 610 deg2 , primarily in the southern hemisphere. The binary merges into a black hole of mass 6 2-4+4M⊙ and spin 0.6 7-0.07+0.05. This black hole is significantly more massive than any other inferred from electromagnetic observations in the stellar-mass regime.
- Publication:
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Physical Review Letters
- Pub Date:
- June 2016
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.241102
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1602.03840
- Bibcode:
- 2016PhRvL.116x1102A
- Keywords:
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- General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology;
- Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
- E-Print:
- 19 pages, 6 figures