Related papers: Impact of Bayesian prior on the characterization o…
The black holes detected by current and future interferometers can have diverse origins. Their expected mass and spin distributions depend on the specifics of the formation mechanisms. When a physically motivated prior distribution is used…
Observation of gravitational waves from inspiralling binary black holes has offered a unique opportunity to study the physical parameters of the component black holes. To infer these parameters, Bayesian methods are employed in conjunction…
The spins of merging binary black holes (BBHs) inferred from gravitational-wave (GW) observations provide key insights into their formation channels. However, spin parameters are typically weakly constrained from data, and their inferred…
Gravitational-wave (GW) observations of binary black-hole (BBH) coalescences are expected to address outstanding questions in astrophysics, cosmology, and fundamental physics. Realizing the full discovery potential of upcoming…
We present a critical reanalysis of the black-hole binary coalescences detected during LIGO's first observing run under different Bayesian prior assumptions. We summarize the main findings of Vitale et al. (2017) and show additional…
The properties of precessing, coalescing binary black holes are presently inferred through comparison with two approximate models of compact binary coalescence. In this work we show these two models often disagree substantially when…
Primordial stellar-mass black holes, which may contribute to dark matter and to the observed LIGO binary black hole coalescences, are expected to be born with very low spins. Here we show that accretion mass gain by the components of a…
The coalescence of massive black holes generates gravitational waves (GWs) that will be measurable by space-based detectors such as LISA to large redshifts. The spins of a binary's black holes have an important impact on its waveform.…
To date, close to fifty presumed black hole binary mergers were observed by the LIGO and Virgo detectors. The analyses have been done with an assumption that these objects are black holes by limiting the spin prior to the Kerr bound.…
Gravitational wave detection from binary black hole (BBH) inspirals has become routine thanks to the LIGO/Virgo interferometers. The nature of these back holes remains uncertain. We study here the spin distributions of LIGO/Virgo black…
GW190412 is the first observation of a black hole binary with definitively unequal masses. GW190412's mass asymmetry, along with the measured positive effective inspiral spin, allowed for inference of a component black hole spin: the…
We investigate the effects of prior selection on the inferred mass and spin parameters of the neutron star-black hole merger GW230529\_181500. Specifically, we explore models motivated by astrophysical considerations, including massive…
While the Advanced LIGO and Virgo gravitational-wave experiments now regularly observe binary black hole mergers, the evolutionary origin of these events remains a mystery. Analysis of the binary black hole spin distribution may shed light…
The general-relativistic phenomenon of spin-induced orbital precession has not yet been observed in strong-field gravity. Gravitational-wave observations of binary black holes (BBHs) are prime candidates, since we expect the astrophysical…
Gravitational waves from precessing binary black holes exhibit new features that are absent in non-precessionary systems. All current waveform models take into account only the modulation of the signal due to precession. In this letter, we…
The inclusion of aligned-spin effects in gravitational-wave search pipelines for neutron-star--black-hole binary coalescence has been shown to increase the astrophysical reach with respect to search methods where spins are neglected…
The observation of gravitational-wave signals from merging black-hole binaries enables direct measurement of the properties of the black holes. An individual observation allows measurement of the black-hole masses, but only limited…
Primordial black holes in the mass range of ground-based gravitational-wave detectors can comprise a significant fraction of the dark matter. Mass and spin measurements from coalescences can be used to distinguish between an astrophysical…
We derive an analytical form of the joint prior of effective spin parameters, $\chi_\mathrm{eff}$ and $\chi_\mathrm{p}$, assuming an isotropic and uniform-in-magnitude spin distribution. This is a vital factor in performing hierarchical…
We characterize the expected statistical errors with which the parameters of black-hole binaries can be measured from gravitational-wave (GW) observations of their inspiral, merger and ringdown by a network of second-generation ground-based…