GW150914 peak frequency: a novel consistency test of strong-field General Relativity

Abstract

We introduce a novel test of General Relativity in the strong-field regime of a binary black hole coalescence. Combining information coming from Numerical Relativity simulations of coalescing black hole binaries with a Bayesian reconstruction of the gravitational wave signal detected in LIGO-Virgo interferometric data, allows one to test theoretical predictions for the instantaneous gravitational wave frequency measured at the peak of the gravitational wave signal amplitude. We present the construction of such a test and apply it on the first gravitational wave event detected by the LIGO and Virgo Collaborations, GW150914. The $p$-value obtained is $p=0.48$, to be contrasted with an expected value of $p=0.5$, so that no signs of violations from General Relativity were detected.

arXiv comment7 pages, 2 figures

References in corpus (33)

• Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger
• GW170817: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Neutron Star Inspiral
• Advanced Virgo: a 2nd generation interferometric gravitational wave detector
• GW151226: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a 22-Solar-Mass Binary Black Hole Coalescence
• GW170104: Observation of a 50-Solar-Mass Binary Black Hole Coalescence at Redshift 0.2
• GW170814: A Three-Detector Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Coalescence
• Tests of general relativity with GW150914
• GW170608: Observation of a 19-solar-mass Binary Black Hole Coalescence
• Properties of the Binary Black Hole Merger GW150914
• Frequency-domain gravitational waves from non-precessing black-hole binaries. I. New numerical waveforms and anatomy of the signal
• An improved effective-one-body model of spinning, nonprecessing binary black holes for the era of gravitational-wave astrophysics with advanced detectors
• Total recoil: the maximum kick from nonspinning black-hole binary inspiral
• BayesWave: Bayesian Inference for Gravitational Wave Bursts and Instrument Glitches
• A catalog of 174 binary black-hole simulations for gravitational-wave astronomy
• Calibration of Moving Puncture Simulations
• Time-domain effective-one-body gravitational waveforms for coalescing compact binaries with nonprecessing spins, tides and self-spin effects
• Surrogate model of hybridized numerical relativity binary black hole waveforms
• Enriching the Symphony of Gravitational Waves from Binary Black Holes by Tuning Higher Harmonics
• First higher-multipole model of gravitational waves from spinning and coalescing black-hole binaries
• Fast and accurate prediction of numerical relativity waveforms from binary black hole coalescences using surrogate models
• Georgia Tech Catalog of Gravitational Waveforms
• A Surrogate Model of Gravitational Waveforms from Numerical Relativity Simulations of Precessing Binary Black Hole Mergers
• Reducing phase error in long numerical binary black hole evolutions with sixth order finite differencing
• Simulations of non-equal mass black hole binaries with spectral methods
• Improved methods for simulating nearly extremal binary black holes
• Accurate gravitational waveforms for binary-black-hole mergers with nearly extremal spins
• Final spin and radiated energy in numerical simulations of binary black holes with equal masses and equal, aligned or anti-aligned spins
• Modeling the source of GW150914 with targeted numerical-relativity simulations
• High accuracy simulations of black hole binaries:spins anti-aligned with the orbital angular momentum
• The hangup effect in unequal mass binary black hole mergers and further studies of their gravitational radiation and remnant properties
• Bayesian reconstruction of gravitational wave bursts using chirplets
• The nonspinning binary black hole merger scenario revisited
• Decoding the final state in binary black hole mergers

Cited by in corpus (15)

• Constraints on quasi-normal-mode frequencies with LIGO-Virgo binary-black-hole observations
• Tests of general relativity in the nonlinear regime: a parametrized plunge-merger-ringdown gravitational waveform model
• Quasi-normal mode frequencies and gravitational perturbations of black holes with any subextremal spin in modified gravity through METRICS: the scalar-Gauss-Bonnet gravity case
• Binary black hole spectroscopy: a no-hair test of GW190814 and GW190412
• Unveiling the merger structure of black hole binaries in generic planar orbits
• Searching for ringdown higher modes with a numerical relativity-informed post-merger model
• Spectral method for metric perturbations of black holes: Kerr background case in general relativity
• Spectral Method for the Gravitational Perturbations of Black Holes: Schwarzschild Background Case
• Investigating the relation between gravitational wave tests of general relativity
• Numerical-relativity validation of effective-one-body waveforms in the intermediate-mass-ratio regime
• Fast post-adiabatic waveforms in the time domain: Applications to compact binary coalescences in LIGO and Virgo
• Measuring Spin of the Remnant Black Hole from Maximum Amplitude
• Strongly Magnetized Hot QCD Matter and Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background
• Gravitational wave peak luminosity model for precessing binary black holes
• Black hole ringdown spectroscopy of curvature-coupled scalar and pseudoscalar fields