Document Type
Article
Publication Date
6-1-2017
Journal / Book Title
Physical review letters
Abstract
We describe the observation of GW170104, a gravitational-wave signal produced by the coalescence of a pair of stellar-mass black holes. The signal was measured on January 4, 2017 at 10 11:58.6 UTC by the twin advanced detectors of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory during their second observing run, with a network signal-to-noise ratio of 13 and a false alarm rate less than 1 in 70 000 years. The inferred component black hole masses are 31.2-6.0+8.4M' and 19.4-5.9+5.3M (at the 90% credible level). The black hole spins are best constrained through measurement of the effective inspiral spin parameter, a mass-weighted combination of the spin components perpendicular to the orbital plane, χeff=-0.12-0.30+0.21. This result implies that spin configurations with both component spins positively aligned with the orbital angular momentum are disfavored. The source luminosity distance is 880-390+450 Mpc corresponding to a redshift of z=0.18-0.07+0.08. We constrain the magnitude of modifications to the gravitational-wave dispersion relation and perform null tests of general relativity. Assuming that gravitons are dispersed in vacuum like massive particles, we bound the graviton mass to mg≤7.7×10-23 eV/c2. In all cases, we find that GW170104 is consistent with general relativity.
DOI
10.1103/PhysRevLett.118.221101
MSU Digital Commons Citation
Abbott, B. P.; Abbott, R.; Abbott, T. D.; Acernese, F.; Ackley, K.; Adams, C.; Adams, T.; Addesso, P.; Adhikari, R. X.; Adya, V. B.; Affeldt, C.; Afrough, M.; Agarwal, B.; Agathos, M.; Agatsuma, K.; Aggarwal, N.; Aguiar, O. D.; Aiello, L.; Ain, A.; Ajith, P.; Allen, B.; Allen, G.; Allocca, A.; Altin, P. A.; Amato, A.; Ananyeva, A.; Anderson, S. B.; Anderson, W. G.; Antier, S.; Appert, S.; Favata, Marc; and Ghosh, Shaon, "GW170104: Observation of a 50-Solar-Mass Binary Black Hole Coalescence at Redshift 0.2" (2017). Department of Physics and Astronomy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works. 71.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/physics-astron-facpubs/71
Published Citation
Scientific, L. I. G. O., Abbott, B. P., Abbott, R., Abbott, T. D., Acernese, F., Ackley, K., ... & Cao, H. (2017). GW170104: observation of a 50-solar-mass binary black hole coalescence at redshift 0.2. Physical review letters, 118(22), 221101.