GW170608: Observation of a 19 solar-mass binary black hole coalescence

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-18-2017

Keywords

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena, General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Abstract

On June 8, 2017 at 02:01:16.49 UTC, a gravitational-wave signal from the merger of two stellar-mass black holes was observed by the two Advanced LIGO detectors with a network signal-to-noise ratio of 13. This system is the lightest black hole binary so far observed, with component masses 12+7−2M⊙ and 7+2−2M⊙ (90% credible intervals). These lie in the range of measured black hole masses in low-mass X-ray binaries, thus allowing us to compare black holes detected through gravitational waves with electromagnetic observations. The source's luminosity distance is 340+140−140 Mpc, corresponding to redshift 0.07+0.03−0.03. We verify that the signal waveform is consistent with the predictions of general relativity.

Journal Title

Astrophysical Journal of Letters

Volume

851

Issue

2

First Page

L35 arXiv/1711.05578

DOI

10.3847/2041-8213/aa9f0c

First Department

Physics

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