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GW151226: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a 22-Solar-Mass Binary Black Hole Coalescence

Abbott, B. P. and Abbott, R. and Adhikari, R. X. and Anderson, S. B. and Arai, K. and Araya, M. C. and Barayoga, J. C. and Barish, B. C. and Berger, B. K. and Billingsley, G. and Blackburn, J. K. and Bork, R. and Brooks, A. F. and Brunett, S. and Cahillane, C. and Callister, T. and Cepeda, C. B. and Couvares, P. and Coyne, D. C. and Dergachev, V. and Drever, R. W. P. and Ehrens, P. and Eichholz, J. and Etzel, T. and Gossan, S. E. and Gushwa, K. E. and Gustafson, E. K. and Hall, E. D. and Heptonstall, A. W. and Isi, M. and Kanner, J. B. and Kells, W. and Kondrashov, V. and Korth, W. Z. and Kozak, D. B. and Lazzarini, A. and Lewis, J. B. and Maros, E. and Marx, J. N. and McIntyre, G. and McIver, J. and Meshkov, S. and Pedraza, M. and Perreca, A. and Price, L. R. and Quintero, E. A. and Reitze, D. H. and Robertson, N. A. and Rollins, J. G. and Sachdev, S. and Sanchez, E. J. and Schmidt, P. and Singer, A. and Smith, N. D. and Smith, R. J. E. and Taylor, R. and Thirugnanasambandam, M. P. and Torrie, C. I. and Vajente, G. and Vass, S. and Wallace, L. and Weinstein, A. J. and Williams, R. D. and Wipf, C. C. and Yamamoto, H. and Zhang, L. and Zucker, M. E. and Zweizig, J. and Chen, Y. and Engels, W. and Schmidt, P. and Vallisneri, M. and Hemberger, D. and Scheel, M. and Szilágyi, B. and Teukolsky, S. (2016) GW151226: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a 22-Solar-Mass Binary Black Hole Coalescence. Physical Review Letters, 116 (24). Art. No. 241103. ISSN 0031-9007. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.241103. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20160615-122950563

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Abstract

We report the observation of a gravitational-wave signal produced by the coalescence of two stellar-mass black holes. The signal, GW151226, was observed by the twin detectors of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) on December 26, 2015 at 03:38:53 UTC. The signal was initially identified within 70 s by an online matched-filter search targeting binary coalescences. Subsequent off-line analyses recovered GW151226 with a network signal-to-noise ratio of 13 and a significance greater than 5σ. The signal persisted in the LIGO frequency band for approximately 1 s, increasing in frequency and amplitude over about 55 cycles from 35 to 450 Hz, and reached a peak gravitational strain of 3.4^(+0.7)_(-0.9) ×10^(-22). The inferred source-frame initial black hole masses are 14.2^(+8.3)_(-3.7) M⊙ and 7.5^(+2.3)_(-2.3) M⊙, and the final black hole mass is 20.8^(+6.1)_(-1.7) M⊙. We find that at least one of the component black holes has spin greater than 0.2. This source is located at a luminosity distance of 440^(+180)_(-190) Mpc corresponding to a redshift of 0.09^(+0.03)_(-0.04). All uncertainties define a 90% credible interval. This second gravitational-wave observation provides improved constraints on stellar populations and on deviations from general relativity.


Item Type:Article
Related URLs:
URLURL TypeDescription
http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.241103DOIArticle
http://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.241103PublisherArticle
ORCID:
AuthorORCID
Adhikari, R. X.0000-0002-5731-5076
Arai, K.0000-0001-8916-8915
Billingsley, G.0000-0002-4141-2744
Blackburn, J. K.0000-0002-3838-2986
Brooks, A. F.0000-0003-4295-792X
Callister, T.0000-0001-9892-177X
Coyne, D. C.0000-0002-6427-3222
Gossan, S. E.0000-0002-8138-9198
Hall, E. D.0000-0001-9018-666X
Isi, M.0000-0001-8830-8672
Kanner, J. B.0000-0001-8115-0577
Korth, W. Z.0000-0003-3527-1348
Kozak, D. B.0000-0003-3118-8950
McIver, J.0000-0003-0316-1355
Sachdev, S.0000-0002-2432-7070
Vajente, G.0000-0002-7656-6882
Weinstein, A. J.0000-0002-0928-6784
Williams, R. D.0000-0002-9145-8580
Zhang, L.0000-0002-0898-787X
Zucker, M. E.0000-0002-2544-1596
Zweizig, J.0000-0002-1521-3397
Chen, Y.0000-0002-9730-9463
Vallisneri, M.0000-0002-4162-0033
Teukolsky, S.0000-0001-9765-4526
Additional Information:© 2015 Published by the American Physical Society.This article is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Received 31 May 2016; published 15 June 2016. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the United States National Science Foundation (NSF) for the construction and operation of the LIGO Laboratory and Advanced LIGO as well as the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) of the United Kingdom, the Max Planck Society (MPS), and the State of Niedersachsen/Germany for support of the construction of Advanced LIGO and construction and operation of the GEO600 detector. Additional support for Advanced LIGO was provided by the Australian Research Council. The authors gratefully acknowledge the Italian Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter supported by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, for the construction and operation of the Virgo detector and the creation and support of the EGO consortium. The authors also gratefully acknowledge research support from these agencies as well as by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research of India, Department of Science and Technology, India, Science & Engineering Research Board (SERB), India, Ministry of Human Resource Development, India, the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, the Conselleria d’Economia i Competitivitat and Conselleria d’Educació, Cultura i Universitats of the Govern de les Illes Balears, the National Science Centre of Poland, the European Commission, the Royal Society, the Scottish Funding Council, the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance, the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (OTKA), the Lyon Institute of Origins (LIO), the National Research Foundation of Korea, Industry Canada and the Province of Ontario through the Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation, Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP), Russian Foundation for Basic Research, the Leverhulme Trust, the Research Corporation, Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), Taiwan, and the Kavli Foundation. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the NSF, STFC, MPS, INFN, CNRS and the State of Niedersachsen/Germany for provision of computational resources. This article has been assigned the document numbers LIGO-P151226 and VIR-0285A-16.
Group:LIGO
Funders:
Funding AgencyGrant Number
NSFUNSPECIFIED
Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)UNSPECIFIED
Max Planck SocietyUNSPECIFIED
State of Niedersachsen/GermanyUNSPECIFIED
Australian Research CouncilUNSPECIFIED
Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN)UNSPECIFIED
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)UNSPECIFIED
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO)UNSPECIFIED
Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (India)UNSPECIFIED
Department of Science and Technology (India)UNSPECIFIED
Science & Engineering Research Board (SERB)UNSPECIFIED
Ministry of Human Resource Development (India)UNSPECIFIED
Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO)UNSPECIFIED
Conselleria d’Economia i CompetitivitatUNSPECIFIED
Conselleria d’Educació, Cultura i Universitats of the Govern de les Illes BalearsUNSPECIFIED
National Science Centre of PolandUNSPECIFIED
European CommissionUNSPECIFIED
Royal SocietyUNSPECIFIED
Scottish Funding CouncilUNSPECIFIED
Scottish Universities Physics AllianceUNSPECIFIED
Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (OTKA)UNSPECIFIED
Lyon Institute of Origins (LIO)UNSPECIFIED
National Research Foundation of KoreaUNSPECIFIED
Industry CanadaUNSPECIFIED
Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and InnovationUNSPECIFIED
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)UNSPECIFIED
Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIAR)UNSPECIFIED
Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação (MCTI)UNSPECIFIED
Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)UNSPECIFIED
Russian Foundation for Basic ResearchUNSPECIFIED
Leverhulme TrustUNSPECIFIED
Research CorporationUNSPECIFIED
Ministry of Science and Technology (Taipei)UNSPECIFIED
Kavli FoundationUNSPECIFIED
Other Numbering System:
Other Numbering System NameOther Numbering System ID
LIGO DocumentLIGO-P151226
VIRGO DocumentVIR-0285A-16
Issue or Number:24
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.241103
Record Number:CaltechAUTHORS:20160615-122950563
Persistent URL:https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20160615-122950563
Usage Policy:No commercial reproduction, distribution, display or performance rights in this work are provided.
ID Code:67944
Collection:CaltechAUTHORS
Deposited By: Tony Diaz
Deposited On:15 Jun 2016 22:54
Last Modified:11 Nov 2021 03:57

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