Related papers: Spin Doctors: How to diagnose a hierarchical merge…
We perform a detailed parameter estimation study of binary black hole merger events reported in Zackay et al. and Venumadhav et al.. These are some of the faintest signals reported so far, and hence, relative to the loud events in the…
The first observational run of the Advanced LIGO detectors, from September 12, 2015 to January 19, 2016, saw the first detections of gravitational waves from binary black hole mergers. In this paper we present full results from a search for…
Data from the LIGO and Virgo detectors has confirmed that stellar-mass black holes can merge within a Hubble time, leaving behind massive remnant black holes. In some astrophysical environments such as globular clusters and AGN disks, it…
The higher-multipoles of gravitational wave signals from coalescing compact binaries play a vital role in the accurate reconstruction of source properties, bringing about a deeper and nuanced understanding of fundamental physics and…
GW241011 and GW241110 both exhibit extremely asymmetric masses, high primary spins, and significant spin-orbit misalignment, which challenge the formation of first-generation binary black hole mergers formed from stellar collapse. This…
The merger of a binary black hole gives birth to a highly distorted final black hole. The gravitational radiation emitted as this black hole relaxes presents us with the unique opportunity to probe extreme gravity and its connection with…
The disks of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) provide a natural environment where stellar-mass black holes (BHs) can dynamically pair, undergo repeated interactions, and eventually merge. It is commonly assumed that gas accretion will both…
Modelling the end point of binary black hole mergers is a cornerstone of modern gravitational-wave astronomy. Extracting multiple quasinormal mode frequencies from the ringdown signal allows the remnant black hole to be studied in…
Measurements of black-hole spins from gravitational-wave observations of black-hole binaries with ground-based detectors are expected to be hampered by partial degeneracies in the gravitational-wave phasing: between the two component spins,…
The predicted rate of binary black hole mergers from galactic fields can vary over several orders of magnitude and is extremely sensitive to the assumptions of stellar evolution. But in dense stellar environments such as globular clusters,…
The astrophysical origin of the over 90 compact binary mergers discovered by the LIGO and Virgo gravitational wave observatories is an open question. While the unusual mass and spin of some of the discovered objects constrain progenitor…
Robustly measuring binary black hole spins via gravitational waves is key to understanding these systems' astrophysical origins, but remains challenging -- especially for high-mass systems, whose signals are short and dominated by the…
We present an empirical approach for interpreting gravitational wave signals of binary black hole mergers under the assumption that the underlying black hole population is sourced by remnants of stellar evolution. Using the observed…
With its last observing run, the LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA collaboration has detected almost one hundred gravitational waves from compact binary coalescences. A common approach to studying the population properties of the observed binaries is…
The discovery of the gravitational-wave source GW150914 with the Advanced LIGO detectors provides the first observational evidence for the existence of binary black-hole systems that inspiral and merge within the age of the Universe. Such…
We present results on the mass, spin, and redshift distributions with phenomenological population models using the ten binary black hole mergers detected in the first and second observing runs completed by Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo.…
We address two important questions in gravitational-wave astronomy. What is the astrophysical formation scenario leading to black-hole binary mergers? Did some of the merging black holes form hierarchically through previous generations of…
Several astrophysical scenarios have been proposed to explain the origin of the population of binary black hole (BBH) mergers detected in gravitational waves (GWs) by the LIGO/Virgo Collaboration. Among them, BBH mergers assembled…
With the hundreds of merging binary black hole (BH) signals expected to be detected by LIGO/Virgo, LISA and other instruments in the next few years, the modeling of astrophysical channels that lead to the formation of compact-object…
The origin of the correlation between the effective spins ($\chi_{\rm eff}$) and mass ratios ($q$) of LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA's binary black holes (BBHs) is still an open question. Motivated by the recent identification of two subpopulations of…