Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger Thorne, K. S. and Drever, R. W. P. and Adhikari, R. X. and Chen, Y. and Ott, C. D. and Weinstein, A. J. and Abbott, B. P. and Abbott, R. and Abernathy, M. R. and Anderson, S. B. and Arai, K. and Araya, M. C. and Barayoga, J. C. and Barish, B. C. and Berger, B. K. and Billingsley, G. and Blackburn, J. K. and Bork, R. and Brooks, A. F. and Cahillane, C. and Callister, T. and Cepeda, C. B. and Chakraborty, R. and Chalermsongsak, T. and Couvares, P. and Coyne, D. C. and Dergachev, V. and Ehrens, P. and Engels, W. and Etzel, T. and Gossan, S. E. and Gushwa, K. E. and Hall, E. D. and Heefner, J. and Heptonstall, A. W. and Hodge, K. A. and Isi, M. and Jacobson, M. B. and Kells, W. and Kanner, J. B. and Kondrashov, V. and Korth, W. Z. and Kozak, D. B. and Lazzarini, A. and Li, T. G. F. and Mageswaran, M. and Maros, E. and Martynov, D. V. and Marx, J. N. and McIntyre, G. and McIver, J. and Meshkov, S. and Pedraza, M. and Perreca, A. and Price, L. R. and Quintero, E. A. and Robertson, N. A. and Rollins, J. G. and Sachdev, S. and Sanchez, E. J. and Sanders, G. H. and Schmidt, P. and Shao, Z. and Singer, A. and Smith, M. R. and Smith, N. D. and Smith, R. J. E. and Taylor, R and Thirugnanasambandam, M. P. and Torrie, C. I. and Vajente, G. and Vallisneri, M. and Vass, S. and Wallace, L. and Whitcomb, S. E. and Willems, P. A. and Williams, R. D. and Wipf, C. C. and Yamamoto, H. and Zhang, L. and Zucker, M. E. and Zweizig, J. (2016) Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger. Physical Review Letters, 116 (6). Art. No. 061102. ISSN 0031-9007. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20160211-080913893

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843Kb Use this Persistent URL to link to this item: https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20160211-080913893 Abstract On September 14, 2015 at 09:50:45 UTC the two detectors of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory simultaneously observed a transient gravitational-wave signal. The signal sweeps upwards in frequency from 35 to 250 Hz with a peak gravitational-wave strain of 1.0×10^(−21). It matches the waveform predicted by general relativity for the inspiral and merger of a pair of black holes and the ringdown of the resulting single black hole. The signal was observed with a matched-filter signal-to-noise ratio of 24 and a false alarm rate estimated to be less than 1 event per 203 000 years, equivalent to a significance greater than 5.1σ. The source lies at a luminosity distance of 410 +160/−180 Mpc corresponding to a redshift z=0.09 +0.03/−0.04. In the source frame, the initial black hole masses are 36+5−4M_⊙ and 29+4−4M_⊙, and the final black hole mass is 62+4−4M⊙, with 3.0+0.5−0.5M_⊙c^2 radiated in gravitational waves. All uncertainties define 90% credible intervals. These observations demonstrate the existence of binary stellar-mass black hole systems. This is the first direct detection of gravitational waves and the first observation of a binary black hole merger.

Item Type: Article Related URLs: URL URL Type Description http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.061102 DOI Article http://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.061102 Publisher Article ORCID: Author ORCID Adhikari, R. X. 0000-0002-5731-5076 Chen, Y. 0000-0002-9730-9463 Ott, C. D. 0000-0003-4993-2055 Weinstein, A. J. 0000-0002-0928-6784 Arai, K. 0000-0001-8916-8915 Billingsley, G. 0000-0002-4141-2744 Blackburn, J. K. 0000-0002-3838-2986 Brooks, A. F. 0000-0003-4295-792X Callister, T. 0000-0001-9892-177X Coyne, D. C. 0000-0002-6427-3222 Gossan, S. E. 0000-0002-8138-9198 Hall, E. D. 0000-0001-9018-666X Isi, M. 0000-0001-8830-8672 Kanner, J. B. 0000-0001-8115-0577 Korth, W. Z. 0000-0003-3527-1348 Kozak, D. B. 0000-0003-3118-8950 McIver, J. 0000-0003-0316-1355 Sachdev, S. 0000-0002-2432-7070 Vajente, G. 0000-0002-7656-6882 Vallisneri, M. 0000-0002-4162-0033 Williams, R. D. 0000-0002-9145-8580 Zhang, L. 0000-0002-0898-787X Zucker, M. E. 0000-0002-2544-1596 Zweizig, J. 0000-0002-1521-3397 Additional Information: This article is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Received Jan 21 2016. Published 11 Feb 2016. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the United States National Science Foundation (NSF) for the construction and operation of the LIGO Laboratory and Advanced LIGO as well as the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) of the United Kingdom, the Max-Planck Society (MPS), and the State of Niedersachsen, Germany, for support of the construction of Advanced LIGO and construction and operation of the GEO 600 detector. Additional support for Advanced LIGO was provided by the Australian Research Council. The authors gratefully acknowledge the Italian Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), and the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter supported by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, for the construction and operation of the Virgo detector, and for the creation and support of the EGO consortium. The authors also gratefully acknowledge research support from these agencies as well as by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research of India, Department of Science and Technology, India, Science & Engineering Research Board (SERB), India, Ministry of Human Resource Development, India, the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, the Conselleria d’Economia i Competitivitat and Conselleria d’Educació, Cultura i Universitats of the Govern de les Illes Balears, the National Science Centre of Poland, the European Commission, the Royal Society, the Scottish Funding Council, the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance, the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (OTKA), the Lyon Institute of Origins (LIO), the National Research Foundation of Korea, Industry Canada and the Province of Ontario through the Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation, Russian Foundation for Basic Research, the Leverhulme Trust, the Research Corporation, Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), Taiwan, and the Kavli Foundation. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the NSF, STFC, MPS, INFN, CNRS and the State of Niedersachsen, Germany, for provision of computational resources. This article has been assigned the document numbers LIGO-P150914 and VIR-0015A-16. Group: LIGO Funders: Funding Agency Grant Number NSF UNSPECIFIED Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) UNSPECIFIED Max-Planck Society UNSPECIFIED Australian Research Council UNSPECIFIED Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) UNSPECIFIED Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) UNSPECIFIED Stichting voor Fundamenteel Onderzoek der Materie (FOM) UNSPECIFIED Council of Scientific and Industrial Research of India UNSPECIFIED Department of Science and Technology of India UNSPECIFIED Science and Engineering Research Board of India UNSPECIFIED Ministry of Human Resource Development, India UNSPECIFIED Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (MINECO) UNSPECIFIED Conselleria d’Economia i Competitivitat UNSPECIFIED National Science Centre of Poland UNSPECIFIED European Commission UNSPECIFIED Royal Society UNSPECIFIED Scottish Funding Council UNSPECIFIED Scottish Universities Physics Alliance UNSPECIFIED Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (OTKA) UNSPECIFIED Lyon Institute of Origins (LIO) UNSPECIFIED National Research Foundation of Korea UNSPECIFIED Industry Canada UNSPECIFIED Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) UNSPECIFIED Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIAR) UNSPECIFIED Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação UNSPECIFIED Russian Foundation for Basic Research UNSPECIFIED Leverhulme Trust UNSPECIFIED Research Corporation UNSPECIFIED Ministry of Science and Technology (Taipei) UNSPECIFIED Kavli Foundation UNSPECIFIED Conselleria d’Educació, Cultura i Universitats of the Govern de les Illes Balears UNSPECIFIED Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation UNSPECIFIED State of Niedersachsen/Germany UNSPECIFIED Other Numbering System: Other Numbering System Name Other Numbering System ID LIGO LIGO-P150914 VIRGO VIR-0015A-16 Issue or Number: 6 Record Number: CaltechAUTHORS:20160211-080913893 Persistent URL: https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20160211-080913893 Usage Policy: No commercial reproduction, distribution, display or performance rights in this work are provided. ID Code: 64405 Collection: CaltechAUTHORS Deposited By: Joy Painter Deposited On: 11 Feb 2016 16:22 Last Modified: 09 Mar 2020 13:19 Repository Staff Only: item control page