Binary Black Hole Mergers in the First Advanced LIGO Observing Run

Abstract

The first observational run of the Advanced LIGO detectors, from September 12, 2015 to January 19, 2016, saw the first detections of gravitational waves from binary black hole mergers. In this paper, we present full results from a search for binary black hole merger signals with total masses up to <a:math xmlns:a="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><a:mrow><a:mn>100</a:mn><a:msub><a:mrow><a:mi mathvariant="normal">M</a:mi></a:mrow><a:mrow><a:mo stretchy="false">⊙</a:mo></a:mrow></a:msub></a:mrow></a:math> and detailed implications from our observations of these systems. Our search, based on general-relativistic models of gravitational-wave signals from binary black hole systems, unambiguously identified two signals, GW150914 and GW151226, with a significance of greater than <e:math xmlns:e="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><e:mn>5</e:mn><e:mi>σ</e:mi></e:math> over the observing period. It also identified a third possible signal, LVT151012, with substantially lower significance and with an 87% probability of being of astrophysical origin. We provide detailed estimates of the parameters of the observed systems. Both GW150914 and GW151226 provide an unprecedented opportunity to study the two-body motion of a compact-object binary in the large velocity, highly nonlinear regime. We do not observe any deviations from general relativity, and we place improved empirical bounds on several high-order post-Newtonian coefficients. From our observations, we infer stellar-mass binary black hole merger rates lying in the range <g:math xmlns:g="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><g:mrow><g:mn>9</g:mn><g:mi>–</g:mi><g:mn>240</g:mn><g:mtext> </g:mtext><g:mtext> </g:mtext><g:msup><g:mrow><g:mi>Gpc</g:mi></g:mrow><g:mrow><g:mo>−</g:mo><g:mn>3</g:mn></g:mrow></g:msup><g:mtext> </g:mtext><g:msup><g:mrow><g:mi>yr</g:mi></g:mrow><g:mrow><g:mo>−</g:mo><g:mn>1</g:mn></g:mrow></g:msup></g:mrow></g:math>. These observations are beginning to inform astrophysical predictions of binary black hole formation rates and indicate that future observing runs of the Advanced detector network will yield many more gravitational-wave detections. Published by the American Physical Society 2016

Affiliated Institutions

• National Institute for Space Research BR
• Université Paris Cité FR
• Université Savoie Mont Blanc FR
• Moscow State University TJ
• California Institute of Technology US
• Louisiana State University US
• University of Padua IT
• Université Paris-Sud FR
• Vitenparken
• Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics IN
• University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee US
• Universität Hamburg DE
• HUN-REN Wigner Research Centre for Physics HU
• Australian National University AU
• Montana State University US
• Tata Institute of Fundamental Research IN
• The University of Western Australia AU
• Leibniz University Hannover DE
• Université Côte d'Azur FR
• University of Southampton GB
• European Gravitational Observatory IT
• University of Sannio IT
• University of Rome Tor Vergata IT
• Délégation Paris 7 FR
• University of Glasgow GB
• Université de Rennes FR
• Stanford University US
• University of Perugia IT
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology US
• University of the West of Scotland GB
• American University US
• University of Birmingham GB
• University of Salerno IT
• University of Florida US
• Columbia University US
• Chennai Mathematical Institute IN
• University of Genoa IT
• Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics DE
• University of Pisa IT
• University of Mississippi US
• Syracuse University US
• California State University, Fullerton US
• Artemis (United States) US
• Lomonosov Moscow State University RU
• Washington State University US
• LIGO Scientific Collaboration US
• Radboud University Nijmegen NL

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