No Arabic abstract
The final stage of a binary black hole merger is ringdown, in which the system is described by a Kerr black hole with quasinormal mode perturbations. It is far from straightforward to identify the time at which the ringdown begins. Yet determining this time is important for precision tests of the general theory of relativity that compare an observed signal with quasinormal mode descriptions of the ringdown, such as tests of the no-hair theorem. We present an algorithmic method to analyze the choice of ringdown start time in the observed waveform. This method is based on determining how close the strong field is to a Kerr black hole (Kerrness). Using numerical relativity simulations, we characterize the Kerrness of the strong-field region close to the black hole using a set of local, gauge-invariant geometric and algebraic conditions that measure local isometry to Kerr. We produce a map that associates each time in the gravitational waveform with a value of each of these Kerrness measures; this map is produced by following outgoing null characteristics from the strong and near-field regions to the wave zone. We perform this analysis on a numerical relativity simulation with parameters consistent with GW150914- the first gravitational wave detection. We find that the choice of ringdown start time of $3,mathrm{ms}$ after merger used in the GW150914 study to test general relativity corresponds to a high dimensionless perturbation amplitude of $ sim 7.5 times 10^{-3}$ in the strong-field region. This suggests that in higher signal-to-noise detections, one would need to start analyzing the signal at a later time for studies that depend on the validity of black hole perturbation theory.
The third release of the RIT public catalog of numerical relativity black-hole-binary waveforms url{http://ccrg.rit.edu/~RITCatalog} consists of 777 accurate simulations that include 300 precessing and 477 nonprecessing binary systems with mass ratios $q=m_1/m_2$ in the range $1/15leq qleq1$ and individual spins up to $s/m^2=0.95$. The catalog also provides initial parameters of the binary, trajectory information, peak radiation, and final remnant black hole properties. The waveforms are corrected for the center of mass drifting and are extrapolated to future null infinity. We successfully test this correction comparing with simulations of low radition content initial data. As an initial application of this waveform catalog we reanalyze all the peak radiation and remnant properties to find new, simple, correlations among them for practical astrophysical usage.
We report a search for gravitational waves from the inspiral, merger and ringdown of binary black holes (BBH) with total mass between 25 and 100 solar masses, in data taken at the LIGO and Virgo observatories between July 7, 2009 and October 20, 2010. The maximum sensitive distance of the detectors over this period for a (20,20) Msun coalescence was 300 Mpc. No gravitational wave signals were found. We thus report upper limits on the astrophysical coalescence rates of BBH as a function of the component masses for non-spinning components, and also evaluate the dependence of the search sensitivity on component spins aligned with the orbital angular momentum. We find an upper limit at 90% confidence on the coalescence rate of BBH with non-spinning components of mass between 19 and 28 Msun of 3.3 times 10^-7 mergers /Mpc^3 /yr.
The black hole uniqueness and the no-hair theorems imply that the quasinormal spectrum of any astrophysical black hole is determined solely by its mass and spin. The countably infinite number of quasinormal modes of a Kerr black hole are thus related to each other and any deviations from these relations provide a strong hint for physics beyond the general theory of relativity. To test the no-hair theorem using ringdown signals, it is necessary to detect at least two quasinormal modes. In particular, one can detect the fundamental mode along with a subdominant overtone or with another angular mode, depending on the mass ratio and the spins of the progenitor binary. Also in the light of the recent discovery of GW190412, studying how the mass ratio affects the prospect of black hole spectroscopy using overtones or angular modes is pertinent, and this is the major focus of our study. First, we provide ready-to-use fits for the amplitudes and phases of both the angular modes and overtones as a function of mass ratio $qin[0,10]$. Using these fits we estimate the minimum signal-to-noise ratio for detectability, resolvability, and measurability of subdominant modes/tones. We find that performing black-hole spectroscopy with angular modes is preferable when the binary mass ratio is larger than $qapprox 1.2$ (provided that the source is not located at a particularly disfavoured inclination angle). For nonspinning, equal-mass binary black holes, the overtones seem to be the only viable option to perform a spectroscopy test of the no-hair theorem. However this would require a large ringdown signal-to-noise ratio ($approx 100$ for a $5%$ accuracy test with two overtones) and the inclusion of more than one overtone to reduce modelling errors, making black-hole spectroscopy with overtones impractical in the near future.
The RIT numerical relativity group is releasing a public catalog of black-hole-binary waveforms. The initial release of the catalog consists of 126 recent simulations that include precessing and non precessing systems with mass ratios $q=m_1/m_2$ in the range $1/6leq qleq1$. The catalog contains information about the initial data of the simulation, the waveforms extrapolated to infinity, as well as information about the peak luminosity and final remnant black hole properties. These waveforms can be used to independently interpret gravitational wave signals from laser interferometric detectors and
The ringdown is the late part of the post-merger signature emitted during the coalescence of two black holes and comprises of a superposition of quasi-normal-modes. Within general relativity, because of the no-hair theorems, the frequencies and damping times of these modes are entirely determined by the mass and angular momentum of the final Kerr black hole. A detection of multiple ringdown modes would potentially allow us to test the no-hair theorem from observational data. The parameters which determine whether sub-dominant ringdown modes can be detected are primarily the overall signal-to-noise ratio present in the ringdown signal, and on the amplitude of the subdominant mode with respect to the dominant mode. In this paper, we use Bayesian inference to determine the detectability of a subdominant mode in a set of simulated analytical ringdown signals. Focusing on the design sensitivity of the Advanced LIGO detectors, we systematically vary the signal-to-noise ratio of the ringdown signal, and the mode amplitude ratio in order to determine what kind of signals are promising for performing black hole spectroscopy.