Properties of the Binary Black Hole Merger GW150914
B. P. Abbott, California Institute of Technology
R. Abbott, Louisiana State University
T. D. Abbott, University of Salerno
M. R. Abernathy, Complesso Universitario di Monte sant'Angelo
F. Acernese, University of Florida
K. Ackley, Universite de Savoie
C. Adams, Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute)
T. Adams, National Institute for Subatomic Physics
P. Addesso, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
R. X. Adhikari, National Institute for Space Research
V. B. Adya, National Institute for Nuclear Physics
C. Affeldt, Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics India
M. Agathos, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research
K. Agatsuma, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
N. Aggarwal, Leibniz University Hannover
O. D. Aguiar, University of Pisa
L. Aiello, Sezione di Pisa
A. Ain, Australian National University
P. Ajith, University of Mississippi
B. Allen, California State University Fullerton
A. Allocca, ComUE Paris-Saclay
P. A. Altin, Chennai Mathematical Institute
S. B. Anderson, University of Rome Tor Vergata
W. G. Anderson, University of Southampton
K. Arai, University of Hamburg
M. C. Araya, Universite Paris 7
C. C. Arceneaux, Montana State University
J. S. Areeda, University of Perugia
N. Arnaud, European Gravitational Observatory
K. G. Arun, Syracuse University
Abstract
On September 14, 2015, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) detected a gravitational-wave transient (GW150914); we characterize the properties of the source and its parameters. The data around the time of the event were analyzed coherently across the LIGO network using a suite of accurate waveform models that describe gravitational waves from a compact binary system in general relativity. GW150914 was produced by a nearly equal mass binary black hole of masses 36-4+5M and 29-4+4M; for each parameter we report the median value and the range of the 90% credible interval. The dimensionless spin magnitude of the more massive black hole is bound to be <0.7 (at 90% probability). The luminosity distance to the source is 410-180+160 Mpc, corresponding to a redshift 0.09-0.04+0.03 assuming standard cosmology. The source location is constrained to an annulus section of 610 deg2, primarily in the southern hemisphere. The binary merges into a black hole of mass 62-4+4M and spin 0.67-0.07+0.05. This black hole is significantly more massive than any other inferred from electromagnetic observations in the stellar-mass regime.
