Related papers: Distinguishing binary black hole precessional morp…
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…
Recent work paints a conflicting portrait of the distribution of black hole spins in merging binaries measured with gravitational waves. Some analyses find that a significant fraction of merging binaries contain at least one black hole with…
A gravitational wave (GW) signal carries imprints of the properties of its source. The ability to extract source properties crucially depends on our prior knowledge of the signal morphology. Even though binary black hole (BBH) mergers are…
The recent detections of gravitational waves from binary systems of black holes are in remarkable agreement with the predictions of General Relativity. In this pedagogical mini-review, I will go through the physics of the different phases…
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…
The current paradigm for constructing waveforms from precessing compact binaries is to first construct a waveform in a non-inertial, co-precessing binary source frame followed by a time-dependent rotation to map back to the physical,…
Nearly 210 binary black hole (BBH) mergers have been observed by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA network during its four observing runs. Generic BBHs are spinning, and their spins are misaligned with the orbital angular momentum $\vec{L}$. These…
Current searches for gravitational waves from compact-binary objects are primarily designed to detect the dominant gravitational-wave mode and assume that the binary components have spins which are aligned with the orbital angular momentum.…
Theoretical studies of angular momentum transport suggest that isolated stellar-mass black holes are born with negligible dimensionless spin magnitudes $\chi \lesssim 0.01$. However, recent gravitational-wave observations indicate $\gtrsim…
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…
The signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) for quasi-circular binary black hole inspirals computed from restricted post-Newtonian waveforms are compared with those attained by more complete post-Newtonian signals, which are superpositions of…
Precessing black hole-neutron star (BH-NS) binaries produce a rich gravitational wave signal, encoding the binary's nature and inspiral kinematics. Using the lalinference\_mcmc Markov-chain Monte Carlo parameter estimation code, we use two…
Once a gravitational wave signal is detected, the measurement of its source parameters is important to achieve various scientific goals. This is done through Bayesian inference, where the analysis cost increases with the model complexity…
The continued operation of the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo gravitational-wave detectors is enabling the first detailed measurements of the mass, spin, and redshift distributions of the merging binary black hole population. Our present…
Black hole spectroscopy is the proposal to observe multiple quasinormal modes in the ringdown of a binary black hole merger. In addition to the fundamental quadrupolar mode, overtones and higher harmonics may be present and detectable in…
The growing number of gravitational-wave (GW) observations allows for constraints to be placed on the underlying population of black holes; current estimates show that black hole spins are small, with binaries more likely to have comparable…
Gravitational waves are a prediction of general relativity, and with ground-based detectors now running in their advanced configuration, we will soon be able to measure them directly for the first time. Binaries of stellar-mass black holes…
Strong lensing of {gravitational-wave signals} can produce three types of images, denoted as Type-I, Type-II and Type-III, corresponding to the minima, saddle and maxima of the lensing potential of the lensed images. Type-II images, in…
A general method is presented for estimating the uncertainty in hybrid models of gravitational waveforms from binary black-hole systems with arbitrary physical parameters, and thence the highest allowable initial orbital frequency for a…
Coalescing binary black holes are among the primary science targets for second generation ground-based gravitational wave (GW) detectors. Reliable GW models are central to detection of such systems and subsequent parameter estimation. This…