Related papers: Key Elements of Robustness in Binary Black Hole Ev…
Binary black hole (BBH) mergers detected via gravitational waves are addressing key open questions in astrophysics, cosmology, and fundamental physics. Our scientific conclusions rely on extracting accurate source parameters, for which we…
Measurements of multiple harmonic modes in the gravitational wave signals from binary black hole events could provide an accurate test of general relativity, however they have never been observed before. The sub-dominant modes, other than…
As gravitational-wave (GW) observations of binary black holes are becoming a precision tool for physics and astronomy, several subdominant effects in the GW signals need to be accurately modeled. Previous studies have shown that neglecting…
The detection and subsequent inference of binary black hole signals rely heavily on the accuracy of the waveform model employed. In the highly non-linear, dynamic, and strong-field regime near merger, these waveforms can only be accurately…
We consider the evolution of a supermassive black hole binary (SMBHB) surrounded by a retrograde accretion disk. Assuming the disk is exactly in the binary plane and transfers energy and angular momentum to the binary via direct gas…
We use the open source, community-driven, numerical relativity software, the Einstein Toolkit to study the physics of eccentric, spinning, nonprecessing binary black hole mergers with mass-ratios $q=\{2, 4, 6\}$, individual dimensionless…
Orbital eccentricity is a crucial physical effect to unveil the origin of compact-object binaries detected by ground- and spaced-based gravitational-wave (GW) observatories. Here, we perform for the first time a Bayesian inference study of…
Accurate extractions of the detected gravitational wave (GW) signal waveforms are essential to validate a detection and to probe the astrophysics behind the sources producing the GWs. This however could be difficult in realistic scenarios…
Accreting supermassive black hole binaries are powerful multimessenger sources emitting both gravitational and EM radiation. Understanding the accretion dynamics of these systems and predicting their distinctive EM signals is crucial to…
We construct evolutionary tracks for massive black hole binaries (MBHBs) embedded in a surrounding distribution of stars. The dynamics of the binary is evolved by taking into account the erosion of the central stellar cusp bound to the…
Parameter estimation of binary-black-hole merger events in gravitational-wave data relies on matched-filtering techniques, which, in turn, depend on accurate model waveforms. Here we characterize the systematic biases introduced in…
Gravitational waves (GW), emanating from binary black holes (BBH), encode vital information about their source. GW signals enable us to deduce key properties of the BBH population across the universe, including mass, spin, and eccentricity…
The gravitational wave signal of binary compact objects has two main contributions at frequencies below the characteristic merger frequency: the gravitational wave signal associated with the early inspiral stage of the binary and the…
The population of black holes observed via gravitational waves currently covers the local universe up to a redshift $z\lesssim 1$, for the most massive merging binaries, or $z\lesssim 0.25$ for low-mass BH binaries (BBH). Evolution of the…
Modeling the stochastic gravitational wave background from various astrophysical sources is a key objective in view of upcoming observations with ground- and space-based gravitational wave observatories such as Advanced LIGO, VIRGO, eLISA…
We present a study of the gravitational waveforms from a series of spinning, equal-mass black hole binaries focusing on the harmonic content of the waves and the contribution of the individual harmonics to the signal-to-noise ratio. The…
The direct discovery of gravitational waves from compact binary systems leads for the first time to explore the possibility of black hole spectroscopy. Newly formed black holes produced by coalescing events are copious emitters of…
Gravitational-wave black-hole spectroscopy provides a unique opportunity to test the strong-field regime of gravity and the nature of the final object formed in the aftermath of a merger. Here we investigate the prospects for black-hole…
When numerically solving Einstein's equations for binary black holes (BBH), we must find initial data on a three-dimensional spatial slice by solving constraint equations. The construction of initial data is a multi-step process, in which…
We find the inferred properties of the putative gravitational wave background in the second data release of the European Pulsar Timing Array to be in better agreement with theoretical expectations under the improved noise model. In…