Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger

The LIGO Scientific Collaboration; the Virgo Collaboration

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.061102

paper

Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger

arXiv:1602.03837 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.061102

Abstract

On September 14, 2015 at 09:50:45 UTC the two detectors of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory simultaneously observed a transient gravitational-wave signal. The signal sweeps upwards in frequency from 35 to 250 Hz with a peak gravitational-wave strain of $1.0 \times 1 0^{- 21}$ . It matches the waveform predicted by general relativity for the inspiral and merger of a pair of black holes and the ringdown of the resulting single black hole. The signal was observed with a matched-filter signal-to-noise ratio of 24 and a false alarm rate estimated to be less than 1 event per 203 000 years, equivalent to a significance greater than 5.1 σ. The source lies at a luminosity distance of $41 0_{- 180}^{+ 160}$ Mpc corresponding to a redshift $z = 0.0 9_{- 0.04}^{+ 0.03}$ . In the source frame, the initial black hole masses are $3 6_{- 4}^{+ 5} M_{⊙}$ and $2 9_{- 4}^{+ 4} M_{⊙}$ , and the final black hole mass is $6 2_{- 4}^{+ 4} M_{⊙}$ , with $3. 0_{- 0.5}^{+ 0.5} M_{⊙} c^{2}$ radiated in gravitational waves. All uncertainties define 90% credible intervals.These observations demonstrate the existence of binary stellar-mass black hole systems. This is the first direct detection of gravitational waves and the first observation of a binary black hole merger.

16 pages, 4 figures

Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger

Abstract

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