Publications (28)
Parameter estimation for binary neutron-star coalescences with realistic noise during the Advanced LIGO era
Christopher P. L. Berry, Ilya Mandel, Hannah Middleton +15
Advanced ground-based gravitational-wave (GW) detectors begin operation imminently. Their intended goal is not only to make the first direct detection of GWs, but also to make infe…
Parameter estimation on gravitational waves from neutron-star binaries with spinning components
Ben Farr, Christopher P. L. Berry, Will M. Farr +14
Inspiraling binary neutron stars are expected to be one of the most significant sources of gravitational-wave signals for the new generation of advanced ground-based detectors. We…
Evidence of the pair instability gap from black hole masses
Hui Tong, Maya Fishbach, Eric Thrane +13
Stellar theory predicts a forbidden range of black-hole masses between -- due to pair-instability supernovae, but evidence for such a gap in the mass distri…
Rapid gravitational wave parameter estimation with a single spin: Systematic uncertainties in parameter estimation with the SpinTaylorF2 approximation
Brandon Miller, Richard O'Shaughnessy, Tyson B. Littenberg +1
Reliable low-latency gravitational wave parameter estimation is essential to target limited electromagnetic followup facilities toward astrophysically interesting and electromagnet…
Systematic errors in low latency gravitational wave parameter estimation impact electromagnetic follow-up observations
Tyson B. Littenberg, Ben Farr, Scott Coughlin +1
Among the most eagerly anticipated opportunities made possible by Advanced LIGO/Virgo are multimessenger observations of compact mergers. Optical counterparts may be short-lived so…
When are LIGO/Virgo's Big Black-Hole Mergers?
Maya Fishbach, Zoheyr Doctor, Thomas Callister +6
We study the evolution of the binary black hole (BBH) mass distribution across cosmic time. The second gravitational-wave transient catalog (GWTC-2) from LIGO/Virgo contains BBH ev…
A Strongly Parametrized Mass Ratio Model for the Stable Mass Transfer Channel: a Case Study of the Peak
Jaxen Godfrey, Lieke van Son, Ben Farr
The mass ratio of merging binary black holes (BBHs) carries information about their formation history, yet has received less attention than masses, spins and eccentricities as a ch…
Things that might go bump in the night: Assessing structure in the binary black hole mass spectrum
Amanda M. Farah, Bruce Edelman, Michael Zevin +4
Several features in the mass spectrum of merging binary black holes (BBHs) have been identified using data from the Third Gravitational Wave Transient Catalog (GWTC-3). These featu…
SOAR/Goodman Spectroscopic Assessment of Candidate Counterparts of the LIGO-Virgo Event GW190814
Douglas Tucker, Matthew Wiesner, Sahar Allam +140
On 2019 August 14 at 21:10:39 UTC, the LIGO/Virgo Collaboration (LVC) detected a possible neutron star-black hole merger (NSBH), the first ever identified. An extensive search for…
Implications of modern mass-loss rates for massive stars
JD Merritt, Simon Stevenson, Andreas Sander +7
Massive stars lose a significant fraction of their mass through stellar winds at various stages of their lives, including on the main sequence, during the red supergiant phase, and…
Cosmic Cousins: Identification of a Subpopulation of Binary Black Holes Consistent with Isolated Binary Evolution
Jaxen Godfrey, Bruce Edelman, Ben Farr
Observations of gravitational waves (GWs) from merging compact binaries have become a regular occurrence. The continued advancement of the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) Collaboration dete…
Black Hole Leftovers: The Remnant Population from Binary Black Hole Mergers
Zoheyr Doctor, Ben Farr, Daniel E. Holz
The inspiral and merger of two black holes produces a remnant black hole with mass and spin determined by the properties of its parent black holes. Using the inferred population pr…
Constraining Unmodeled Physics with Compact Binary Mergers from GWTC-1
Bruce Edelman, Francisco J. Rivera-Paleo, J. D. Merritt +8
We present a flexible model to describe the effects of generic deviations of observed gravitational wave signals from modeled waveforms in the LIGO and Virgo gravitational wave det…
physiCal: A physical approach to the marginalization of LIGO calibration uncertainties
Salvatore Vitale, Carl-Johan Haster, Ling Sun +4
The data from ground based gravitational-wave detectors such as Advanced LIGO and Virgo must be calibrated to convert the digital output of photodetectors into a relative displacem…
Using spin to understand the formation of LIGO's black holes
Ben Farr, Daniel E. Holz, Will M. Farr
With the detection of four candidate binary black hole (BBH) mergers by the Advanced LIGO detectors thus far, it is becoming possible to constrain the properties of the BBH merger…
Ain't No Mountain High Enough: Semi-Parametric Modeling of LIGO-Virgos Binary Black Hole Mass Distribution
Bruce Edelman, Zoheyr Doctor, Jaxen Godfrey +1
We introduce a semi-parametric model for the primary mass distribution of binary black holes (BBHs) observed with gravitational waves (GWs) that applies a cubic-spline perturbation…
Reconstructing the sky location of gravitational-wave detected compact binary systems: methodology for testing and comparison
Trevor Sidery, Ben Aylott, Nelson Christensen +20
The problem of reconstructing the sky position of compact binary coalescences detected via gravitational waves is a central one for future observations with the ground-based networ…
Transient glitch mitigation in Advanced LIGO data with
Jonathan Merritt, Ben Farr, Rachel Hur +2
"Glitches" -- transient noise artifacts in the data collected by gravitational wave interferometers like LIGO and Virgo -- are an ever-present obstacle for the search and character…
Are all models wrong? Falsifying binary formation models in gravitational-wave astronomy
Lachlan Passenger, Eric Thrane, Paul D. Lasky +3
As the catalogue of gravitational-wave transients grows, several entries appear "exceptional" within the population. Tipping the scales with a total mass of ,…
Black Hole Coagulation: Modeling Hierarchical Mergers in Black Hole Populations
Zoheyr Doctor, Daniel Wysocki, Richard O'Shaughnessy +2
Data from the LIGO and Virgo detectors has confirmed that stellar-mass black holes can merge within a Hubble time, leaving behind massive remnant black holes. In some astrophysical…
The First Two Years of Electromagnetic Follow-Up with Advanced LIGO and Virgo
Leo P. Singer, Larry R. Price, Ben Farr +13
We anticipate the first direct detections of gravitational waves (GWs) with Advanced LIGO and Virgo later this decade. Though this groundbreaking technical achievement will be its…
Transdimensional inference for gravitational-wave astronomy with Bilby
Hui Tong, Nir Guttman, Teagan A. Clarke +8
It has become increasingly useful to answer questions in gravitational-wave astronomy using transdimensional models where the number of free parameters can be varied depending on t…
Distinguishing Spin-Aligned and Isotropic Black Hole Populations With Gravitational Waves
Will M. Farr, Simon Stevenson, M. Coleman Miller +3
The first direct detections of gravitational waves from merging binary black holes open a unique window into the binary black hole formation environment. One promising environmenta…
Are LIGO's Black Holes Made From Smaller Black Holes?
Maya Fishbach, Daniel E. Holz, Ben Farr
One proposed formation channel for stellar mass black holes (BHs) is through hierarchical mergers of smaller BHs. Repeated mergers between comparable mass BHs leave an imprint on t…
Cover Your Basis: Comprehensive Data-Driven Characterization of the Binary Black Hole Population
Bruce Edelman, Ben Farr, Zoheyr Doctor
We introduce the first complete non-parametric model for the astrophysical distribution of the binary black hole (BBH) population. Constructed from basis splines, we use these mode…
exocartographer: A Bayesian Framework for Mapping Exoplanets in Reflected Light
Ben Farr, Will M. Farr, Nicolas B. Cowan +2
Future space telescopes will directly image extrasolar planets at visible wavelengths. Time-resolved reflected light from an exoplanet encodes information about atmospheric and sur…
Poking Holes: Looking for Gaps in LIGO/Virgo's Black Hole Population
Bruce Edelman, Zoheyr Doctor, Ben Farr
Stellar evolution models predict the existence of a gap in the black hole mass spectrum from due to pair-instability supernovae (PISNe). We investiga…
Statistical Gravitational Waveform Models: What to Simulate Next?
Zoheyr Doctor, Ben Farr, Daniel E. Holz +1
Models of gravitational waveforms play a critical role in detecting and characterizing the gravitational waves (GWs) from compact binary coalescences. Waveforms from numerical rela…