Abstract
The gravitational-wave signal GW150914 was first identified on September 14, 2015, by searches for short-duration gravitational-wave transients. These searches identify time-correlated transients in multiple detectors with minimal assumptions about the signal morphology, allowing them to be sensitive to gravitational waves emitted by a wide range of sources including binary black hole mergers. Over the observational period from September 12 to October 20, 2015, these transient searches were sensitive to binary black hole mergers similar to GW150914 to an average distance of ∼600 Mpc. In this paper, we describe the analyses that first detected GW150914 as well as the parameter estimation and waveform reconstruction techniques that initially identified GW150914 as the merger of two black holes. We find that the reconstructed waveform is consistent with the signal from a binary black hole merger with a chirp mass of ∼30 M⊙ and a total mass before merger of ∼70 M⊙ in the detector frame.
Recommended Citation
B. P. Abbott et al., "Observing Gravitational-Wave Transient GW150914 with Minimal Assumptions," Physical Review D, vol. 93, no. 12, American Physical Society (APS), Feb 2016.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.93.122004
Department(s)
Physics
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
2470-0010
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Final Version
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2016 American Physical Society (APS), All rights reserved.
Publication Date
01 Feb 2016
