GW151226 : observation of gravitational waves from a 22-solar-mass binary black hole coalescence

Abbott, B. P. and Abbott, R. and Abbott, T. D. and Abernathy, M. R. and Acernese, F. and Ackley, K. and Adams, C. and Adams, T. and Addesso, P. and Adhikari, R. X. and Adya, V. B. and Affeldt, C. and Agathos, M. and Agatsuma, K. and Aggarwal, N. and Aguiar, O. D. and Aiello, L. and Ain, A. and Ajith, P. and Allen, B. and Allocca, A. and Altin, P. A. and Anderson, S. B. and Anderson, W. G. and Arai, K. and Araya, M. C. and Arceneaux, C. C. and Areeda, J. S. and Arnaud, N. and Arun, K. G. and Ascenzi, S. and Ashton, G. and Ast, M. and Aston, S. M. and Astone, P. and Aufmuth, P. and Aulbert, C. and Babak, S. and Bacon, P. and Bader, M. K. M. and Baker, P. T. and Baldaccini, F. and Ballardin, G. and Ballmer, S. W. and Barayoga, J. C. and Barclay, S. E. and Barish, B. C. and Barker, D. and Barone, F. and Barr, B. and Barsotti, L. and Barsuglia, M. and Barta, D. and Bartlett, J. and Bartos, I. and Bassiri, R. and Basti, A. and Batch, J. 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E. and Lovelace, G. and Ossokine, S. and Scheel, M. and Szilagyi, B. and Teukolsky, S. (2016) GW151226 : observation of gravitational waves from a 22-solar-mass binary black hole coalescence. Physical Review Letters, 116. 241103. ISSN 1079-7114 (https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.241103)

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Abstract

We report the observation of a gravitational-wave signal produced by the coalescence of two stellar-mass black holes. The signal, GW151226, was observed by the twin detectors of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) on December 26, 2015 at 03:38:53 UTC. The signal was initially identified within 70 s by an online matched-filter search targeting binary coalescences. Subsequent off-line analyses recovered GW151226 with a network signal-to-noise ratio of 13 and a significance greater than 5σ. The signal persisted in the LIGO frequency band for approximately 1 s, increasing in frequency and amplitude over about 55 cycles from 35 to 450 Hz, and reached a peak gravitational strain of (3.4+0.7/−0.9) × 10−22. The inferred source-frame initial black hole masses are (14.2+8.3/−3.7) M⊙ and (7.5+2.3/−2.3) M⊙, and the final black hole mass is (20.8+6.1/−1.7) M⊙. We find that at least one of the component black holes has spin greater than 0.2. This source is located at a luminosity distance of (440+180/−190) Mpc corresponding to a redshift of (0.09+0.03/−0.04). All uncertainties define a 90% credible interval. This second gravitational-wave observation provides improved constraints on stellar populations and on deviations from general relativity.