GW190521: A Binary Black Hole
Merger with a Total Mass of 150 M☉ LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration
Discovery paper - Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 101102 (2020) https://dcc.ligo.org/LIGO-P2000020/public
(Astro)physical implications - Astrophys. J. Lett. 900, L13 (2020) https://dcc.ligo.org/LIGO-P2000021/public
Data release - https://dcc.ligo.org/LIGO-P2000158/public 1 Gravitational waves
Gravitational waves (GWs) are ripples in spacetime caused by accelerating masses
Some of the best sources of GWs are colliding black holes and neutron stars
Incoming GWs are measured by the Earth- based detector network
2
LIGO Livingston
LIGO-Virgo observing runs
Average sensitive distance to optimally oriented NS-NS source
https://dcc.ligo.org/LIGO-P1200087/public https://dcc.ligo.org/LIGO-G1901322/public
3 GW190521 in LIGO Hanford, LIGO Livingston, Virgo
4 GW190521 signal morphology
GW150914 GW150914 Hanford (H1) Livingston (L1)
GW150914
Normalized energy Normalized energy Normalized energy
GW190521 GW190521 GW190521 Hanford (H1) Livingston (L1) Virgo (V1)
5 LIGO-Virgo sensitivity to binary black hole mergers
● LIGO-Virgo detectors measure the stretching and squeezing of spacetime caused by a passing Inspiral GW Ringdown Merger ● Higher mass binaries correspond to lower frequency GW150914 GW emission GW190521 less sensitive GW170729 ● GW signals from highest mass binaries in LIGO-Virgo detectors more sensitive lack the inspiral (characteristic “chirp”)
6 GW190521 in the context of all LIGO-Virgo detections
Supermassive Black Holes ● So far, LIGO-Virgo has reported 12 binary black hole mergers 105
● The final (remnant) mass of GW190521 is Intermediate Mass Black Holes well above 100 solar masses, marking it as the first intermediate mass black hole (IMBH) detected by LIGO-Virgo
● The primary mass lies outside of the
stellar mass graveyard (> 65 solar masses)
graveyard Stellar mass LIGO-Virgo component mass
LIGO-Virgo remnant mass Solar 7 masses LIGO-Virgo IMBH search sensitivity
LIGO-Virgo sensitive distance in O1-O2 Sensitive distance (Dsen): a measure of how well we can see a given source type on average
IMBH rate upper limit from O1-O2:
Astrophysical merger rate density of GW190521-like events: (based on one detected event)
GW190521, Dsen = 1.7 Gpc (in O3) 8 Searches for GW transients in early O3
Coherent Wave Burst (cWB) GstLAL, MBTA, PyCBC, SPIIR Search for generic transient signals Model-based searches for Cross-correlation in the time-frequency (wavelet) domain compact binary coalescences (CBC)
x
x
9 Low-latency discovery of GW190521
Pipeline Search type GW190521 results
cWB Generic transient Detected with FAR < 1 / 28 yr
GstLAL CBC Detected with FAR above alert threshold
MBTA CBC Not detected
PyCBC Live CBC Detected with FAR ~ 1 / 8 yr
FAR: rate of false alarms SPIIR CBC Detected with FAR above alert threshold ranked higher than the candidate in a given search 6-hr-latency localization using dominant-multipole waveforms w/o precession:
GraceDB page
10 GW190521 rediscovery with offline (archival) search
● Improve calibration of the data Pipeline Search type GW190521 results ● Investigate data quality issues, cWB Generic transient Detected with veto contaminated data FAR ~ 1 / 4900 yr ● Different analysis GstLAL CBC Detected with ○ Candidate ranking FAR ~ 1 / 829 yr ○ Analyzed interferometers ○ Searched mass range PyCBC CBC Detected* with ○ Duration of data used FAR ~ 1 / yr to measure the FAR * Masses/spins of GW190521’s components at the limit of PyCBC’s O3 search range
11 A special signal
● Very short duration (~0.1 s) ??? Massive source ● Low peak frequency (~60 Hz)
● Standard scenario: quasi-circular BBH merger GW190521 Very short inspiral signal
● Alternative scenarios may be explored:
Eccentric Binary, Head-on merger
GW150914 Cosmic String
12 Inferring the source properties, assuming quasi-circular BBH
Compare the data to waveform templates for binary black holes:
● Three different template models (NRSurPHM, SEOBPHM, IMRPhenomPHM) ● Numerical simulations ● All include: higher-order multipoles and orbital precession
All models lead to consistent source parameters:
● Discovery paper: results using NRSurPHM. ● Properties & Implications paper: all results.
13 Masses
● Most massive binary ever detected
● Most massive colliding black holes
● Masses within the pair instability supernova gap
14 90% credible regions Spins
Orbital angular momentum
BH1 BH2 ● Spin magnitude (cosmic censorship) ● Orientation (or tilt)
15 Spins
Orbital angular momentum
BH1 BH2 BH1 BH2 ● Spin magnitude (cosmic censorship) ● Orientation (or tilt)
16 Spins
Orbital angular momentum
● Spin magnitude (cosmic censorship) ● tilt = 0: constant orbital plane
17 Spins
Orbital angular momentum
● Spin magnitude (cosmic censorship) ● tilt = 0: constant orbital plane ● tilt not 0: orbital precession
18 Spins
● Spin magnitudes:
○ Strong support at ○ Also at
● Support for misaligned spins
19 Distance and inclination angle
● GWs: sum of many emission modes (multipoles)
● : : Loud signal, only quadrupole multipole ● : Weaker signal, many multipoles.
● No statistical evidence for modes beyond quadrupole
Low latency (6h) estimate: No precession or higher multipoles 20 Final black hole: mass and spin
● The binary merger produces a final BH
● No support for ○ Most massive BH observed via GWs ○ First conclusive observation of an intermediate-mass black hole
● Final spin consistent with the remnant BH of a non-spinning binary
21 Looking at the final black hole: Testing GR
● Two ways to measure the final black hole properties ○ Measure the binary parameters + infer the remnant
22 Looking at the final black hole: Testing GR
● Two ways to measure the final black hole properties ○ Measure the binary parameters + infer the remnant ○ Directly look at the remnant signal ● Black holes characterised by mass and spin
● Material ● Mass
● Size ● Spin
23 Looking at the final black hole: Testing GR
● Two ways to measure the final black hole properties ○ Measure the binary parameters + infer the remnant ○ Directly look at the remnant signal ● Black holes characterised by mass and spin ● Comparing both measurements: test of General Relativity ● Both agree Redshifted mass
24 Astrophysical implications
IMBHs: the missing link between stellar and supermassive black holes 25 Primary component in the pair-instability (PI) mass gap
Efficient pair production in massive stars drives (pulsational) pair instability:
opens a gap in ~ 65 - 120 M⊙ range
Large uncertainties on mass gap boundaries:
● Nuclear reaction rates, e.g. 12C(α,γ)16O
● Collapse of hydrogen envelope
● Stellar rotation
● Convection model
CHALLENGE FOR STELLAR EVOLUTION
26 Dynamical scenarios: Hierarchical mergers
● Multiple mergers of black holes are possible in dense star clusters and galactic nuclei:
○ mass in the PI gap First-generation (1g) black holes ○ consistent with χ ~ 0 and large χ eff p ○ uncertain rates credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble ● GW170729 final black hole in the PI gap
Second generation ● Results of hierarchical Bayesian inference on (2g) a population model depend strongly on assumed properties of 1g mergers
→ no conclusive evidence for GW190521 to be a 2g merger
27 Dynamical scenarios: Stellar mergers in young star clusters
Giant star ● Merger of a massive star with He core and a with He core MS main sequence (MS) star produces a star star with oversized H envelope
● It could collapse to a black hole in the PI gap credit: NASA, ESA, F. Paresce, R. O’Connell ● In a dense star cluster, the black hole acquires companions dynamically: Stellar merger product ○ primary mass in PI gap
○ consistent with χeff~ 0 and large χp Black hole in PI gap ○ uncertain evolution of stellar collision product
○ rate < 10% of all detectable BBH mergers
Credit: Ugo N. Di Carlo 28 Dynamical scenarios: Active galactic nucleus (AGN) disks
● Gas torques from AGN disks favor black hole pairing and hierarchical mergers
○ primary mass in PI gap
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech ○ large χ p ○ uncertain rates
○ predicts an EM counterpart
● Candidate optical counterpart in AGN J124942.3+344929 (Graham et al. 2020)
AGN redshift: z = 0.438
GW190521 redshift: z = 0.82 (+0.28, -0.34) (90% CI)
Credit: Imre Bartos 29 Astrophysical implications: Summary
ISOLATED BINARY EVOLUTION: DYNAMICAL SCENARIOS:
● Main issue: primary mass in the PI gap ● All dynamical scenarios we considered might produce BBHs ● Uncertainties on stellar evolution with mass in the PI gap and large χp leave open the possibility that the lower edge of the mass gap is >65 M⊙ ● Rates, masses and spins uncertain and model dependent
CHALLENGE FOR DYNAMICAL AND STELLAR EVOLUTION MODELS
30
Alternative scenarios
HEAD-ON COLLISION or STRONG GRAVITATIONAL LENSING by HIGHLY ECCENTRIC MERGER: galaxies or galaxy clusters:
○ Extremely rare: < 1% of BBH mergers ○ Low expected lensing rate -3 -4 in star clusters ○ Low optical depth (~10 - 10 ) ○ Absence of an identifiable multi-image counterpart
CORE-COLLAPSE SUPERNOVA: → no evidence in favor of strong lensing
○ Inconsistent GW signal morphology ○ Non-detection of neutrino signal COSMIC STRINGS: ○ Data strongly favor BBH over cosmic string PRIMORDIAL BLACK HOLES: cusp or kink model: ○ Exciting scenario for dark matter ○ Difficult to constrain
31 Summary and Conclusions
● GW190521 is well described by GR waveforms. ● The GW signal is consistent with a BBH merger source,
with total mass of 150 M⊙ . ● The final merged (remnant) black hole is an Intermediate Mass Black Hole (IMBH).
● The more massive of the two BHs in binary is ~ 85 M⊙ , in the Pair Instability Supernova mass gap. ● It may itself be the result of a previous BBH merger. ● Good agreement between full IMR waveforms from NR, and ringdown-only, as a test of GR. ● Forthcoming Population paper will address whether GW190521 is consistent with mass distribution of BBHs observed by L-V.
32 The future is LOUD!
● LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA will have a large sample of GW190521-like black holes ● Next-generation ground- and space-based detectors (such as LISA) will detect intermediate-mass black holes Einstein Telescope LISA over a broad range of masses, further deepening our understanding of BBH formation and populations, and providing powerful tests of GR.
33 Extra slides
34 Distance: impact of higher emission multipoles
● Higher multipoles break degeneracies ○ Distance and inclination
● Absence of higher modes is informative ○ Inclination must be low ○ The source is further away
● Omission of higher modes: ○ Closer source. ○ Low latency alert: 35 Spins
● Spin encoded in two effective parameters
Aligned spins In-plane spins (precession)
● Data barely informative about ● More information about
36 Final black hole: recoil velocity
● GW emission is asymmetric ○ Asymmetric emission of linear momentum ○ Final black hole inherits a recoil velocity ● Recoil depends on mass ratio and spins ○ No spins: < 200km/s ○ Aligned-spins: < 500 km/s ○ Precessing spins: up to 5000km/s ● Spins not greatly constrained: ○ Recoil is not well constrained ○ Consistent with retention in XXXX
37 Bayesian inference on hierarchical mergers
38 Table
39 Skymap
40 Cosmic Strings
41 Searches for GW transients in early O3
Weakly-modeled searches for Not GW190521 generic transient signals Not GW190521
Coherent Wave Burst (cWB)
Relatively insensitive to signal origin and dynamics at the source Model-based searches for compact binary coalescences Not GW190521
with masses from M⊙ to ~500M⊙
GstLAL, MBTA, PyCBC, SPIIR
Balance between physical accuracy, simplicity, sensitivity and computational efficiency
Candidates are assigned a “FAR” The FAR is a property of the search+noise, Rate of false alarms ranked higher than the candidate not an intrinsic property of the GW signal 42