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Article
GW170608: Observation of a 19 solar-mass binary black hole coalescence
Faculty Publications
  • Tiffany Summerscales, Andrews University
  • LIGO Scientific Collaboration, LIGO Scientific Collaboration
  • Virgo Collaboration, Virgo Collaboration
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
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/aa9f0c
First Department
Physics
Citation Information
Tiffany Summerscales, LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration. "GW170608: Observation of a 19 solar-mass binary black hole coalescence" Vol. 851 Iss. 2 (2017) p. L35 arXiv/1711.05578
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/tiffany_summerscales/92/