GW190412: Observation of a binary-black-hole coalescence with asymmetric masses

Authors

R. Abbott, California Institute of TechnologyFollow
T. D. Abbott, Louisiana State UniversityFollow
S. Abraham, Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics IndiaFollow
F. Acernese, Università degli Studi di SalernoFollow
K. Ackley, Monash UniversityFollow
C. Adams, LIGO LivingstonFollow
R. X. Adhikari, California Institute of TechnologyFollow
V. B. Adya, The Australian National UniversityFollow
C. Affeldt, Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute)Follow
M. Agathos, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität JenaFollow
K. Agatsuma, University of BirminghamFollow
N. Aggarwal, Northwestern UniversityFollow
O. D. Aguiar, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas EspaciaisFollow
A. Aich, University of Texas Rio Grande ValleyFollow
L. Aiello, Gran Sasso Science InstituteFollow
A. Ain, Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics IndiaFollow
P. Ajith, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, MumbaiFollow
S. Akcay, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena
G. Allen, University of Illinois Urbana-ChampaignFollow
A. Allocca, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di PisaFollow
P. A. Altin, The Australian National UniversityFollow
A. Amato, Université de LyonFollow
S. Anand, California Institute of TechnologyFollow
A. Ananyeva, California Institute of TechnologyFollow
S. B. Anderson, California Institute of TechnologyFollow
W. G. Anderson, University of Wisconsin-MilwaukeeFollow
S. V. Angelova, University of Strathclyde
S. Ansoldi, Università degli Studi di Udine
S. Antier, APC - AstroParticule et Cosmologie
S. Appert, California Institute of Technology
K. Arai, California Institute of Technology
M. C. Araya, California Institute of Technology
J. S. Areeda, California State University, Fullerton

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-15-2020

Abstract

We report the observation of gravitational waves from a binary-black-hole coalescence during the first two weeks of LIGO's and Virgo's third observing run. The signal was recorded on April 12, 2019 at 05â¶30â¶44 UTC with a network signal-to-noise ratio of 19. The binary is different from observations during the first two observing runs most notably due to its asymmetric masses: A ∼30 M⊙ black hole merged with a ∼8 M⊙ black hole companion. The more massive black hole rotated with a dimensionless spin magnitude between 0.22 and 0.60 (90% probability). Asymmetric systems are predicted to emit gravitational waves with stronger contributions from higher multipoles, and indeed we find strong evidence for gravitational radiation beyond the leading quadrupolar order in the observed signal. A suite of tests performed on GW190412 indicates consistency with Einstein's general theory of relativity. While the mass ratio of this system differs from all previous detections, we show that it is consistent with the population model of stellar binary black holes inferred from the first two observing runs.

Publication Source (Journal or Book title)

Physical Review D

Recommended Citation

Abbott, R., Abbott, T., Abraham, S., Acernese, F., Ackley, K., Adams, C., Adhikari, R., Adya, V., Affeldt, C., Agathos, M., Agatsuma, K., Aggarwal, N., Aguiar, O., Aich, A., Aiello, L., Ain, A., Ajith, P., Akcay, S., Allen, G., Allocca, A., Altin, P., Amato, A., Anand, S., Ananyeva, A., Anderson, S., Anderson, W., Angelova, S., Ansoldi, S., Antier, S., Appert, S., Arai, K., Araya, M., & Areeda, J. (2020). GW190412: Observation of a binary-black-hole coalescence with asymmetric masses. Physical Review D, 102 (4) https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.102.043015