English

Time-frequency structure in the post-merger binary black hole gravitational wave signal

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2025-05-26 v1

Abstract

Gravitational wave signals from asymmetric binary black hole systems have been shown to exhibit additional chirps beyond the primary merger chirp in the post-merger region of the time-frequency domain. These secondary post-merger chirps correlate to the evolving geometry of the common horizon that forms as the binary merges and were previously studied through numerical relativity simulation in a zero-spin regime. In this work, we investigate the post-merger time-frequency structure in systems with both aligned and precessing spin using widely available waveform models. We find that the inclusion of strong aligned spin (ξ=0.75)\left(\xi = 0.75\right) induces further post-merger time-frequency peaks. Additionally we show that even mild precessing spin (χp=0.25)\left(\chi_p = 0.25\right) strongly affects the distribution of post-merger radiative power across the celestial sky of the final black hole. Our results support the theory of a correlation between the post-merger signal and horizon geometry.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2505.17743,
  title  = {Time-frequency structure in the post-merger binary black hole gravitational wave signal},
  author = {Chad Henshaw and Alice Heranval and Laura Cadonati},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2505.17743},
  year   = {2025}
}
R2 v1 2026-07-01T02:33:37.103Z