GW170814: A Three-Detector Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Coalescence
Abstract
On August 14, 2017 at 10∶30:43 UTC, the Advanced Virgo detector and the two Advanced LIGO detectors coherently observed a transient gravitational-wave signal produced by the coalescence of two stellar mass black holes, with a false-alarm rate of ≲1 in 27 000 years. The signal was observed with a three-detector network matched-filter signal-to-noise ratio of 18. The inferred masses of the initial black holes are 30. 5-3.0+5.7M⊙ and 25 .3-4.2+2.8M⊙ (at the 90% credible level). The luminosity distance of the source is 54 0-210+130 Mpc , corresponding to a redshift of z =0.1 1-0.04+0.03. A network of three detectors improves the sky localization of the source, reducing the area of the 90% credible region from 1160 deg2 using only the two LIGO detectors to 60 deg2 using all three detectors. For the first time, we can test the nature of gravitational-wave polarizations from the antenna response of the LIGO-Virgo network, thus enabling a new class of phenomenological tests of gravity.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review Letters
- Pub Date:
- October 2017
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.141101
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1709.09660
- Bibcode:
- 2017PhRvL.119n1101A
- Keywords:
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- General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology;
- Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
- E-Print:
- Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 141101 (2017)