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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Search for intermediate mass black hole binaries in the first and second observing runs of the Advanced LIGO and Virgo network
AU - LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration
AU - Pitkin, Matthew
N1 - © 2019 American Physical Society
PY - 2019/9/30
Y1 - 2019/9/30
N2 - Gravitational-wave astronomy has been firmly established with the detection of gravitational waves from the merger of ten stellar-mass binary black holes and a neutron star binary. This paper reports on the all-sky search for gravitational waves from intermediate mass black hole binaries in the first and second observing runs of the Advanced LIGO and Virgo network. The search uses three independent algorithms: two based on matched filtering of the data with waveform templates of gravitational-wave signals from compact binaries, and a third, model-independent algorithm that employs no signal model for the incoming signal. No intermediate mass black hole binary event is detected in this search. Consequently, we place upper limits on the merger rate density for a family of intermediate mass black hole binaries. In particular, we choose sources with total masses M=m1+m2∈[120,800] M⊙ and mass ratios q=m2/m1∈[0.1,1.0]. For the first time, this calculation is done using numerical relativity waveforms (which include higher modes) as models of the real emitted signal. We place a most stringent upper limit of 0.20 Gpc−3 yr−1 (in comoving units at the 90% confidence level) for equal-mass binaries with individual masses m1,2=100 M⊙ and dimensionless spins χ1,2=0.8 aligned with the orbital angular momentum of the binary. This improves by a factor of ∼5 that reported after Advanced LIGO’s first observing run.
AB - Gravitational-wave astronomy has been firmly established with the detection of gravitational waves from the merger of ten stellar-mass binary black holes and a neutron star binary. This paper reports on the all-sky search for gravitational waves from intermediate mass black hole binaries in the first and second observing runs of the Advanced LIGO and Virgo network. The search uses three independent algorithms: two based on matched filtering of the data with waveform templates of gravitational-wave signals from compact binaries, and a third, model-independent algorithm that employs no signal model for the incoming signal. No intermediate mass black hole binary event is detected in this search. Consequently, we place upper limits on the merger rate density for a family of intermediate mass black hole binaries. In particular, we choose sources with total masses M=m1+m2∈[120,800] M⊙ and mass ratios q=m2/m1∈[0.1,1.0]. For the first time, this calculation is done using numerical relativity waveforms (which include higher modes) as models of the real emitted signal. We place a most stringent upper limit of 0.20 Gpc−3 yr−1 (in comoving units at the 90% confidence level) for equal-mass binaries with individual masses m1,2=100 M⊙ and dimensionless spins χ1,2=0.8 aligned with the orbital angular momentum of the binary. This improves by a factor of ∼5 that reported after Advanced LIGO’s first observing run.
U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevD.100.064064
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevD.100.064064
M3 - Journal article
VL - 100
JO - Physical Review D
JF - Physical Review D
SN - 1550-7998
IS - 6
M1 - 064064
ER -