GW190521 : A binary black hole merger with a total mass of 150  M⊙

Abbott, B. P. and Angelova, S. V. and Gier, C. and Macfoy, S. and Reid, S. and Wallace, G. S., LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration (2020) GW190521 : A binary black hole merger with a total mass of 150  M⊙. Physical Review Letters, 125 (10). 101102. ISSN 1079-7114 (https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.101102)

[thumbnail of Abbott-etal-PRL-2020-GW190521-A-binary-black-hole-merger-with-a-total]
Preview
Text. Filename: Abbott_etal_PRL_2020_GW190521_A_binary_black_hole_merger_with_a_total.pdf
Final Published Version
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 logo

Download (1MB)| Preview

Abstract

On May 21, 2019 at 03:02:29 UTC Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo observed a short duration gravitational-wave signal, GW190521, with a three-detector network signal-to-noise ratio of 14.7, and an estimated false-alarm rate of 1 in 4900 yr using a search sensitive to generic transients. If GW190521 is from a quasicircular binary inspiral, then the detected signal is consistent with the merger of two black holes with masses of 85-14+21 Mm and 66-18+17 Mm (90% credible intervals). We infer that the primary black hole mass lies within the gap produced by (pulsational) pair-instability supernova processes, with only a 0.32% probability of being below 65 Mm. We calculate the mass of the remnant to be 142-16+28 Mm, which can be considered an intermediate mass black hole (IMBH). The luminosity distance of the source is 5.3-2.6+2.4 Gpc, corresponding to a redshift of 0.82-0.34+0.28. The inferred rate of mergers similar to GW190521 is 0.13-0.11+0.30 Gpc-3 yr-1.