GW190521: A Binary Black Hole Merger with a Total Mass of 150 M

(LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration)

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.101102

GW190521: A Binary Black Hole Merger with a Total Mass of 150 M

(LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration)

Department of Physics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

978 Scopus citations

Abstract

On May 21, 2019 at 03:02:29 UTC Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo observed a short duration gravitational-wave signal, GW190521, with a three-detector network signal-to-noise ratio of 14.7, and an estimated false-alarm rate of 1 in 4900 yr using a search sensitive to generic transients. If GW190521 is from a quasicircular binary inspiral, then the detected signal is consistent with the merger of two black holes with masses of 85-14+21 Mm and 66-18+17 Mm (90% credible intervals). We infer that the primary black hole mass lies within the gap produced by (pulsational) pair-instability supernova processes, with only a 0.32% probability of being below 65 Mm. We calculate the mass of the remnant to be 142-16+28 Mm, which can be considered an intermediate mass black hole (IMBH). The luminosity distance of the source is 5.3-2.6+2.4 Gpc, corresponding to a redshift of 0.82-0.34+0.28. The inferred rate of mergers similar to GW190521 is 0.13-0.11+0.30 Gpc-3 yr-1.

Original language	English
Article number	101102
Journal	Physical Review Letters
Volume	125
Issue number	10
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.101102
State	Published - 4 Sep 2020

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 authors. Published by the American Physical Society.

Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the United States National Science Foundation (NSF) for the construction and operation of the LIGO Laboratory and Advanced LIGO as well as the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) of the United Kingdom, the Max-Planck-Society (MPS), and the State of Niedersachsen/Germany for support of the construction of Advanced LIGO and construction and operation of the GEO600 detector. Additional support for Advanced LIGO was provided by the Australian Research Council. The authors gratefully acknowledge the Italian Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, for the construction and operation of the Virgo detector and the creation and support of the EGO consortium. The authors also gratefully acknowledge research support from these agencies as well as by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research of India, the Department of Science and Technology, India, the Science & Engineering Research Board (SERB), India, the Ministry of Human Resource Development, India, the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación, the Vicepresidència i Conselleria d’Innovació, Recerca i Turisme and the Conselleria d’Educació i Universitat del Govern de les Illes Balears, the Conselleria d’Innovació, Universitats, Ciència i Societat Digital de la Generalitat Valenciana and the CERCA Programme Generalitat de Catalunya, Spain, the National Science Centre of Poland, the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, the Russian Science Foundation, the European Commission, the European Regional Development Funds (ERDF), the Royal Society, the Scottish Funding Council, the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance, the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (OTKA), the French Lyon Institute of Origins (LIO), the Belgian Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (FRS-FNRS), Actions de Recherche Concertées (ARC) and Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek—Vlaanderen (FWO), Belgium, the Paris Île-de-France Region, the National Research, Development and Innovation Office Hungary (NKFIH), the National Research Foundation of Korea, Industry Canada and the Province of Ontario through the Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation, the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council Canada, the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovations, and Communications, the International Center for Theoretical Physics South American Institute for Fundamental Research (ICTP-SAIFR), the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), the Leverhulme Trust, the Research Corporation, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), Taiwan and the Kavli Foundation. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the NSF, STFC, INFN, and CNRS for provision of computational resources. We thank the referees for useful comments that have improved the manuscript. In addition to the software cited earlier, pesummary was used to produce the publicly released samples and matplotlib was used for plotting.

Funders	Funder number
Actions de Recherche Concertées
Conselleria d’Innovació, Universitats, Ciència i Societat Digital de la Generalitat Valenciana
Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek—Vlaanderen
French Lyon Institute of Origins
National Science Foundation	1912578, 1806824, 1806885, 1707835, 1828187, 2011608, 2012057, 1912649, 1912081, 2011334
Kavli Foundation
Canadian Institute for Advanced Research
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation
Science and Technology Facilities Council
Leverhulme Trust
Royal Society
Scottish Funding Council
Scottish Universities Physics Alliance
European Commission
Australian Research Council
Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology, India
Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India
Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung
National Natural Science Foundation of China
Science and Engineering Research Board
Russian Foundation for Basic Research
Fonds De La Recherche Scientifique - FNRS
Generalitat de Catalunya
Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
Hungarian Scientific Research Fund
National Research Foundation of Korea
Instituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare
Narodowe Centrum Nauki
Ministry of Human Resource Development
Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Russian Science Foundation
European Regional Development Fund
Universitat de les Illes Balears
Nemzeti Kutatási Fejlesztési és Innovációs Hivatal
Agencia Estatal de Investigación
Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia, Inovações e Comunicações
Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare
ICTP South American Institute for Fundamental Research

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10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.101102

Cite this

@article{c506a82b13bb44949bfbfb5704bc28c9,

title = "GW190521: A Binary Black Hole Merger with a Total Mass of 150 M",

abstract = "On May 21, 2019 at 03:02:29 UTC Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo observed a short duration gravitational-wave signal, GW190521, with a three-detector network signal-to-noise ratio of 14.7, and an estimated false-alarm rate of 1 in 4900 yr using a search sensitive to generic transients. If GW190521 is from a quasicircular binary inspiral, then the detected signal is consistent with the merger of two black holes with masses of 85-14+21 Mm and 66-18+17 Mm (90% credible intervals). We infer that the primary black hole mass lies within the gap produced by (pulsational) pair-instability supernova processes, with only a 0.32% probability of being below 65 Mm. We calculate the mass of the remnant to be 142-16+28 Mm, which can be considered an intermediate mass black hole (IMBH). The luminosity distance of the source is 5.3-2.6+2.4 Gpc, corresponding to a redshift of 0.82-0.34+0.28. The inferred rate of mergers similar to GW190521 is 0.13-0.11+0.30 Gpc-3 yr-1.",

author = "{(LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration)} and R. Abbott and Abbott, {T. D.} and S. Abraham and F. Acernese and K. Ackley and C. Adams and Adhikari, {R. X.} and Adya, {V. B.} and C. Affeldt and M. Agathos and K. Agatsuma and N. Aggarwal and Aguiar, {O. D.} and A. Aich and L. Aiello and A. Ain and P. Ajith and S. Akcay and G. Allen and A. Allocca and Altin, {P. A.} and A. Amato and S. Anand and A. Ananyeva and Anderson, {S. B.} and Anderson, {W. G.} and Angelova, {S. V.} and S. Ansoldi and S. Antier and S. Appert and K. Arai and Araya, {M. C.} and Areeda, {J. S.} and M. Ar{\`e}ne and N. Arnaud and Aronson, {S. M.} and Arun, {K. G.} and Y. Asali and S. Ascenzi and G. Ashton and Aston, {S. M.} and P. Astone and F. Aubin and P. Aufmuth and K. Aultoneal and C. Austin and V. Avendano and S. Babak and P. Bacon and O. Birnholtz",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2020 authors. Published by the American Physical Society.",

year = "2020",

month = sep,

day = "4",

doi = "10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.101102",

language = "אנגלית",

volume = "125",

journal = "Physical Review Letters",

issn = "0031-9007",

publisher = "American Physical Society",

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AU - (LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration)

AU - Abbott, R.

AU - Abbott, T. D.

AU - Abraham, S.

AU - Acernese, F.

AU - Ackley, K.

AU - Adams, C.

AU - Adhikari, R. X.

AU - Adya, V. B.

AU - Affeldt, C.

AU - Agathos, M.

AU - Agatsuma, K.

AU - Aggarwal, N.

AU - Aguiar, O. D.

AU - Aich, A.

AU - Aiello, L.

AU - Ain, A.

AU - Ajith, P.

AU - Akcay, S.

AU - Allen, G.

AU - Allocca, A.

AU - Altin, P. A.

AU - Amato, A.

AU - Anand, S.

AU - Ananyeva, A.

AU - Anderson, S. B.

AU - Anderson, W. G.

AU - Angelova, S. V.

AU - Ansoldi, S.

AU - Antier, S.

AU - Appert, S.

AU - Arai, K.

AU - Araya, M. C.

AU - Areeda, J. S.

AU - Arène, M.

AU - Arnaud, N.

AU - Aronson, S. M.

AU - Arun, K. G.

AU - Asali, Y.

AU - Ascenzi, S.

AU - Ashton, G.

AU - Aston, S. M.

AU - Astone, P.

AU - Aubin, F.

AU - Aufmuth, P.

AU - Aultoneal, K.

AU - Austin, C.

AU - Avendano, V.

AU - Babak, S.

AU - Bacon, P.

AU - Birnholtz, O.

PY - 2020/9/4

Y1 - 2020/9/4

N2 - On May 21, 2019 at 03:02:29 UTC Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo observed a short duration gravitational-wave signal, GW190521, with a three-detector network signal-to-noise ratio of 14.7, and an estimated false-alarm rate of 1 in 4900 yr using a search sensitive to generic transients. If GW190521 is from a quasicircular binary inspiral, then the detected signal is consistent with the merger of two black holes with masses of 85-14+21 Mm and 66-18+17 Mm (90% credible intervals). We infer that the primary black hole mass lies within the gap produced by (pulsational) pair-instability supernova processes, with only a 0.32% probability of being below 65 Mm. We calculate the mass of the remnant to be 142-16+28 Mm, which can be considered an intermediate mass black hole (IMBH). The luminosity distance of the source is 5.3-2.6+2.4 Gpc, corresponding to a redshift of 0.82-0.34+0.28. The inferred rate of mergers similar to GW190521 is 0.13-0.11+0.30 Gpc-3 yr-1.

AB - On May 21, 2019 at 03:02:29 UTC Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo observed a short duration gravitational-wave signal, GW190521, with a three-detector network signal-to-noise ratio of 14.7, and an estimated false-alarm rate of 1 in 4900 yr using a search sensitive to generic transients. If GW190521 is from a quasicircular binary inspiral, then the detected signal is consistent with the merger of two black holes with masses of 85-14+21 Mm and 66-18+17 Mm (90% credible intervals). We infer that the primary black hole mass lies within the gap produced by (pulsational) pair-instability supernova processes, with only a 0.32% probability of being below 65 Mm. We calculate the mass of the remnant to be 142-16+28 Mm, which can be considered an intermediate mass black hole (IMBH). The luminosity distance of the source is 5.3-2.6+2.4 Gpc, corresponding to a redshift of 0.82-0.34+0.28. The inferred rate of mergers similar to GW190521 is 0.13-0.11+0.30 Gpc-3 yr-1.

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GW190521: A Binary Black Hole Merger with a Total Mass of 150 M

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

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