Quantum black hole spectroscopy: probing the quantum nature of the black hole area using LIGO-Virgo ringdown detections

Abstract

We present a thorough observational investigation of the heuristic quantised ringdown model presented in Foit & Kleban (2019). This model is based on the Bekenstein-Mukhanov conjecture, stating that the area of a black hole horizon is an integer multiple of the Planck area $l_P^2$ multiplied by a phenomenological constant, $\alpha$, which can be viewed as an additional black hole intrinsic parameter. Our approach is based on a time-domain analysis of the gravitational wave signals produced by the ringdown phase of binary black hole mergers detected by the LIGO and Virgo collaboration. Employing a full Bayesian formalism and taking into account the complete correlation structure among the black hole parameters, we show that the value of $\alpha$ cannot be constrained using only GW150914, in contrast to what was suggested in Foit & Kleban (2019). We proceed to repeat the same analysis on the new gravitational wave events detected by the LIGO and Virgo Collaboration up to 1 October 2019, obtaining a combined-event measure equal to $\alpha =15.6_{-13.3}^{+20.5}$ and a combined log odds ratio of $0.1\pm 0.6$, implying that current data are not informative enough to favour or discard this model against general relativity. We then show that using a population of $\mathcal{O}(20)$ GW150914-like simulated events - detected by the current infrastructure of ground-based detectors at their design sensitivity - it is possible to confidently falsify the quantised model or prove its validity, in which case probing $\alpha$ at the few % level. Finally we classify the stealth biases that may show up in a population study.

arXiv comment24 pages, 8 figures. v2: updated 1 figure, version accepted by CQG (2021)

References in corpus (58)

• Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger
• Advanced Virgo: a 2nd generation interferometric gravitational wave detector
• GWTC-1: A Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog of Compact Binary Mergers Observed by LIGO and Virgo during the First and Second Observing Runs
• Advanced LIGO
• Quasi-Normal Modes of Stars and Black Holes
• Tests of general relativity with GW150914
• Testing General Relativity with Present and Future Astrophysical Observations
• The information paradox: A pedagogical introduction
• On gravitational-wave spectroscopy of massive black holes with the space interferometer LISA
• Is the gravitational-wave ringdown a probe of the event horizon?
• Tests of General Relativity with the Binary Black Hole Signals from the LIGO-Virgo Catalog GWTC-1
• Gravitational Vacuum Condensate Stars
• Bohr's Correspondence Principle and The Area Spectrum of Quantum Black Holes
• Tests of General Relativity with GW170817
• Open data from the first and second observing runs of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo
• Detection of the Schwarzschild precession in the orbit of the star S2 near the Galactic centre massive black hole
• Stationary Black Holes: Uniqueness and Beyond
• Fundamental Theoretical Bias in Gravitational Wave Astrophysics and the Parameterized Post-Einsteinian Framework
• Spectroscopy of the quantum black hole
• Black Hole Spectroscopy: Testing General Relativity through Gravitational Wave Observations
• Testing the no-hair theorem with GW150914
• A guide to LIGO-Virgo detector noise and extraction of transient gravitational-wave signals
• The basics of gravitational wave theory
• The physical interpretation of the spectrum of black hole quasinormal modes
• Characterization of transient noise in Advanced LIGO relevant to gravitational wave signal GW150914
• The LIGO Open Science Center
• An excess power statistic for detection of burst sources of gravitational radiation
• Hierarchical data-driven approach to fitting numerical relativity data for nonprecessing binary black holes with an application to final spin and radiated energy
• Observational Black Hole Spectroscopy: A time-domain multimode analysis of GW150914
• Bayesian model selection for testing the no-hair theorem with black hole ringdowns
• An improved analysis of GW150914 using a fully spin-precessing waveform model
• Testing general relativity using golden black-hole binaries
• Testing the no-hair theorem with black hole ringdowns using TIGER
• Black-hole Spectroscopy by Making Full Use of Gravitational-Wave Modeling
• Testing general relativity using gravitational wave signals from the inspiral, merger and ringdown of binary black holes
• Ringdown overtones, black hole spectroscopy, and no-hair theorem tests
• Area spectrum of rotating black holes via the new interpretation of quasinormal modes
• Hairy Black Holes and Null Circular Geodesics
• Gravitational wave echoes from black hole area quantization
• Black holes have no short hair
• Empirical tests of the black hole no-hair conjecture using gravitational-wave observations
• Potential gravitational-wave signatures of quantum gravity
• On the Kerr Quantum Area Spectrum
• The Noise of Gravitons
• Observational tests of the black hole area increase law
• Black Holes as Quantum Membranes
• Modeling ringdown II: non-precessing binary black holes
• Astronomical tests for quantum black hole structure
• Black Hole Spectrum: Continuous or Discrete?
• Testing Quantum Black Holes with Gravitational Waves
• Quantum Mechanics, Common Sense and the Black Hole Information Paradox
• Stealth Bias in Gravitational-Wave Parameter Estimation
• Dirichlet Process Gaussian-mixture model: An application to localizing coalescing binary neutron stars with gravitational-wave observations
• Are There Topological Black Hole Solitons in String Theory?
• Spectral Lines of Quantized, Spinning Black Holes and their Astrophysical Relevance
• Statistics of black hole radiance and the horizon area spectrum
• Holographic Shell Model: Stack Data Structure inside Black Holes
• Decoding infrared imprints of quantum origins of black holes

Cited by in corpus (20)

• Destabilizing the Fundamental Mode of Black Holes: The Elephant and the Flea
• Agnostic black hole spectroscopy: Quasinormal mode content of numerical relativity waveforms and limits of validity of linear perturbation theory
• Constraints on quasi-normal-mode frequencies with LIGO-Virgo binary-black-hole observations
• The Science of the Einstein Telescope
• Quasinormal-mode filters: a new approach to analyze the gravitational-wave ringdown of binary black-hole mergers
• Constraints on Kerr-Newman black holes from merger-ringdown gravitational-wave observations
• Enhancing modified gravity detection from gravitational-wave observations using the Parametrized ringdown spin expansion coefficients formalism
• Logarithmic correction to black hole entropy from the nonlocality of quantum gravity
• Searching for ringdown higher modes with a numerical relativity-informed post-merger model
• Spectral Method for the Gravitational Perturbations of Black Holes: Schwarzschild Background Case
• Dynamical Love for area quantized black holes
• Imprint of black hole area quantization and Hawking radiation on inspiraling binary
• Effect of Noise Estimation in Time-Domain Ringdown Analysis: A Case Study with GW150914
• Probing horizon scale quantum effects with Love
• Bounds on tidal charges from gravitational-wave ringdown observations
• New Kind of Echo from Quantum Black Holes
• Echoes from beyond: Detecting gravitational-wave quantum imprints with LISA
• Enhancing the sensitivity of interferometers with stable phase-insensitive quantum filters
• Inverse problem of analog gravity systems II: Rotation and energy-dependent boundary conditions
• Comparing Bayes factors and hierarchical inference for testing general relativity with gravitational waves