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Published November 15, 2024 | Version Published
Journal Article Open

Searching for Asymmetric and Heavily Precessing Binary Black Holes in the Gravitational Wave Data from the LIGO Third Observing Run

Creators

  • 1. ROR icon National Institute for Subatomic Physics
  • 2. ROR icon University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
  • 3. ROR icon University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee
  • 4. ROR icon Pennsylvania State University
  • 5. ROR icon University of Tokyo
  • 6. ROR icon The University of Texas at Austin
  • 7. ROR icon California Institute of Technology
  • 8. ROR icon Marshall Space Flight Center
  • 9. ROR icon Georgia Institute of Technology
  • 10. ROR icon Concordia University Wisconsin
  • 11. ROR icon Kenyon College

Abstract

Leveraging the features of the GstLAL pipeline, we present the results of a matched filtering search for asymmetric binary black hole systems with heavily misaligned spins in LIGO and Virgo data taken during the third observing run. Our target systems show strong imprints of precession whereas current searches have nonoptimal sensitivity in detecting them. After measuring the sensitivity improvement brought by our search over standard spin-aligned searches, we report the detection of 30 gravitational wave events already discovered in the latest version of the Gravitational Wave Transient Catalog. However, we do not find any additional significant gravitational wave candidates. Our results allow us to place an upper limit of 𝑅90%=0.2⁢8+0.33−0.04  Gpc−3 yr−1 on the merger rate of a hypothetical subpopulation of asymmetric, heavily precessing signals, not identified by other searches. Since our upper limit is consistent with the latest rate estimates from the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaboration, our findings rule out the existence of a yet-to-be-discovered population of precessing binaries.

Copyright and License

 © 2024 American Physical Society

Acknowledgement

S. Schmidt is supported by the research program of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). S. C. is supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. PHY-2309332. The authors are grateful for computational resources provided by the LIGO Laboratory and supported by National Science Foundation Grants No. PHY-0757058 and No. PHY-0823459. This material is based upon work supported by NSF’s LIGO Laboratory which is a major facility fully funded by the National Science Foundation. LIGO was constructed by the California Institute of Technology and Massachusetts Institute of Technology with funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and operates under cooperative Agreement No. PHY-1764464. The authors are grateful for computational resources provided by the Pennsylvania State University’s Institute for Computational and Data Sciences (ICDS) and the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee Nemo and support by NSF Grants No. PHY-2011865, No. NSF OAC-2103662, No. NSF PHY-1626190, No. NSF PHY-1700765, No. NSF PHY-2207728, No. NSF PHY-2207594, and No. PHY-2309332 as well as by the research program of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). LIGO Laboratory and Advanced LIGO are funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) as well as the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) of the UK, 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. Virgo is funded, through the European Gravitational Observatory (EGO), by the French Centre National de Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), the Italian Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) and the Dutch Nikhef, with contributions by institutions from Belgium, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Japan, Monaco, Poland, Portugal, Spain. KAGRA is supported by Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) in Japan; National Research Foundation (NRF) and Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) in Korea; Academia Sinica (AS) and National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) in Taiwan.

Additional Information

This Letter carries LIGO Document No. LIGO-P2400044.

Files

PhysRevLett.133.201401.pdf

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Additional details

Funding

Dutch Research Council
National Science Foundation
PHY-2309332
National Science Foundation
PHY-0757058
National Science Foundation
PHY-0823459
National Science Foundation
PHY-2011865
National Science Foundation
OAC-2103662
National Science Foundation
PHY-1626190
National Science Foundation
PHY-1700765
National Science Foundation
PHY-2207728
National Science Foundation
PHY-2207594
National Science Foundation
PHY-2309332
National Science Foundation
PHY-1764464
California Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
Institute for Computational and Data Sciences, Pennsylvania State University
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Science and Technology Facilities Council
Australian Research Council
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
National Research Foundation of Korea
Ministry of Science and ICT
Academia Sinica
National Science and Technology Council

Dates

Accepted
2024-10-11
Accepted
Available
2024-11-15
Published online

Caltech Custom Metadata

Caltech groups
LIGO
Other Numbering System Name
LIGO
Other Numbering System Identifier
LIGO-P2400044
Publication Status
Published