Abstract
We report the observation of gravitational waves from a binary-black-hole coalescence during the first two weeks of LIGO's and Virgo's third observing run. The signal was recorded on April 12, 2019 at 05:30:44 UTC with a network signal-to-noise ratio of 19. The binary is different from observations during the first two observing runs most notably due to its asymmetric masses: a ∼30 Mʘ black hole merged with a ∼8 Mʘ black hole companion. The more massive black hole rotated with a dimensionless spin magnitude between 0.22 and 0.60 (90% probability). Asymmetric systems are predicted to emit gravitational waves with stronger contributions from higher multipoles, and indeed we find strong evidence for gravitational radiation beyond the leading quadrupolar order in the observed signal. A suite of tests performed on GW190412 indicates consistency with Einstein's general theory of relativity. While the mass ratio of this system differs from all previous detections, we show that it is consistent with the population model of stellar binary black holes inferred from the first two observing runs.
Recommended Citation
R. Abbott et al., "GW190412: Observation of a Binary-Black-Hole Coalescence with Asymmetric Masses," Physical Review D, vol. 102, no. 4, American Physical Society (APS), Aug 2020.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.102.043015
Department(s)
Physics
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
2470-0010; 2470-0029
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Final Version
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2020 American Physical Society (APS), All rights reserved.
Publication Date
24 Aug 2020
