Measurability of Quadrupole Deviations from Kerr in Binary black hole Mergers

Abstract

We investigate the measurability of black hole quadrupole deviations from Kerr using five binary black hole mergers observed by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaboration with the beyond-general-relativity full-waveform model $\hat{I}{¨}_{\mathrm{FD}}$. While earlier lower-SNR events mildly favored nonzero quadrupole deviations, the newly included high-SNR GWTC-4 events GW231226, GW230814, and GW250114 yield results increasingly consistent with the Kerr prediction. In particular, GW230814 and GW250114, the two highest-SNR events in our sample, yield deviations consistent with zero. We further perform separate inspiral and post-inspiral analyses and find both the posterior distributions centered close to $\hat{I}”Q/Q=0$ for GW230814 and GW250114. Overall, the full-waveform, inspiral, and post-inspiral results for GW230814 and GW250114 reveal no observable departure from the no-hair theorem within the sensitivity of the current data and the $\hat{I}{¨}_{\mathrm{FD}}$ framework. Although the limited number of events prevents a definitive conclusion, future detections of additional high-SNR binary black hole mergers will enable increasingly stringent and robust tests of the Kerr nature of black holes.

14 pages, 8 figures, 3 tables