Search for subsolar-mass binaries in the first half of advanced LIGO's and advanced virgo's third observing run

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Abbott, B. P. and Angelova, S. V. and Birney, R. and Macfoy, S. and Reid, S. and Ben Yaala, Marwa, LIGO Scientific Collaboration, Virgo Collaboration (2022) Search for subsolar-mass binaries in the first half of advanced LIGO's and advanced virgo's third observing run. Physical Review Letters, 129 (6). 061104. ISSN 1079-7114 (https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.129.061104)

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Abstract

We report on a search for compact binary coalescences where at least one binary component has a mass between 0.2  M⊙ and 1.0  M⊙ in Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo data collected between 1 April 2019 1500 UTC and 1 October 2019 1500 UTC. We extend our previous analyses in two main ways: we include data from the Virgo detector and we allow for more unequal mass systems, with mass ratio q≥0.1. We do not report any gravitational-wave candidates. The most significant trigger has a false alarm rate of 0.14  yr−1. This implies an upper limit on the merger rate of subsolar binaries in the range [220−24200]  Gpc−3 yr−1, depending on the chirp mass of the binary. We use this upper limit to derive astrophysical constraints on two phenomenological models that could produce subsolar-mass compact objects. One is an isotropic distribution of equal-mass primordial black holes. Using this model, we find that the fraction of dark matter in primordial black holes in the mass range 0.2  M⊙

ORCID iDs

Abbott, B. P., Angelova, S. V., Birney, R., Macfoy, S., Reid, S. and Ben Yaala, Marwa ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6754-0875;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)