77 research outputs found

    Open data from the third observing run of LIGO, Virgo, KAGRA and GEO

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    The global network of gravitational-wave observatories now includes five detectors, namely LIGO Hanford, LIGO Livingston, Virgo, KAGRA, and GEO 600. These detectors collected data during their third observing run, O3, composed of three phases: O3a starting in April of 2019 and lasting six months, O3b starting in November of 2019 and lasting five months, and O3GK starting in April of 2020 and lasting 2 weeks. In this paper we describe these data and various other science products that can be freely accessed through the Gravitational Wave Open Science Center at https://gwosc.org. The main dataset, consisting of the gravitational-wave strain time series that contains the astrophysical signals, is released together with supporting data useful for their analysis and documentation, tutorials, as well as analysis software packages.Comment: 27 pages, 3 figure

    Search for Eccentric Black Hole Coalescences during the Third Observing Run of LIGO and Virgo

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    Despite the growing number of confident binary black hole coalescences observed through gravitational waves so far, the astrophysical origin of these binaries remains uncertain. Orbital eccentricity is one of the clearest tracers of binary formation channels. Identifying binary eccentricity, however, remains challenging due to the limited availability of gravitational waveforms that include effects of eccentricity. Here, we present observational results for a waveform-independent search sensitive to eccentric black hole coalescences, covering the third observing run (O3) of the LIGO and Virgo detectors. We identified no new high-significance candidates beyond those that were already identified with searches focusing on quasi-circular binaries. We determine the sensitivity of our search to high-mass (total mass M>70M>70 MM_\odot) binaries covering eccentricities up to 0.3 at 15 Hz orbital frequency, and use this to compare model predictions to search results. Assuming all detections are indeed quasi-circular, for our fiducial population model, we place an upper limit for the merger rate density of high-mass binaries with eccentricities 0<e0.30 < e \leq 0.3 at 0.330.33 Gpc3^{-3} yr1^{-1} at 90\% confidence level.Comment: 24 pages, 5 figure

    The population of merging compact binaries inferred using gravitational waves through GWTC-3

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    We report on the population properties of 76 compact binary mergers detected with gravitational waves below a false alarm rate of 1 per year through GWTC-3. The catalog contains three classes of binary mergers: BBH, BNS, and NSBH mergers. We infer the BNS merger rate to be between 10 Gpc3yr1\rm{Gpc^{-3} yr^{-1}} and 1700 Gpc3yr1\rm{Gpc^{-3} yr^{-1}} and the NSBH merger rate to be between 7.8 Gpc3yr1\rm{Gpc^{-3}\, yr^{-1}} and 140 Gpc3yr1\rm{Gpc^{-3} yr^{-1}} , assuming a constant rate density versus comoving volume and taking the union of 90% credible intervals for methods used in this work. Accounting for the BBH merger rate to evolve with redshift, we find the BBH merger rate to be between 17.9 Gpc3yr1\rm{Gpc^{-3}\, yr^{-1}} and 44 Gpc3yr1\rm{Gpc^{-3}\, yr^{-1}} at a fiducial redshift (z=0.2). We obtain a broad neutron star mass distribution extending from 1.20.2+0.1M1.2^{+0.1}_{-0.2} M_\odot to 2.00.3+0.3M2.0^{+0.3}_{-0.3} M_\odot. We can confidently identify a rapid decrease in merger rate versus component mass between neutron star-like masses and black-hole-like masses, but there is no evidence that the merger rate increases again before 10 MM_\odot. We also find the BBH mass distribution has localized over- and under-densities relative to a power law distribution. While we continue to find the mass distribution of a binary's more massive component strongly decreases as a function of primary mass, we observe no evidence of a strongly suppressed merger rate above 60M\sim 60 M_\odot. The rate of BBH mergers is observed to increase with redshift at a rate proportional to (1+z)κ(1+z)^{\kappa} with κ=2.91.8+1.7\kappa = 2.9^{+1.7}_{-1.8} for z1z\lesssim 1. Observed black hole spins are small, with half of spin magnitudes below χi0.25\chi_i \simeq 0.25. We observe evidence of negative aligned spins in the population, and an increase in spin magnitude for systems with more unequal mass ratio

    Search for subsolar-mass black hole binaries in the second part of Advanced LIGO's and Advanced Virgo's third observing run

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    We describe a search for gravitational waves from compact binaries with at least one component with mass 0.2 MM_\odot -- 1.0M1.0 M_\odot and mass ratio q0.1q \geq 0.1 in Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo data collected between 1 November 2019, 15:00 UTC and 27 March 2020, 17:00 UTC. No signals were detected. The most significant candidate has a false alarm rate of 0.2 yr1\mathrm{yr}^{-1}. We estimate the sensitivity of our search over the entirety of Advanced LIGO's and Advanced Virgo's third observing run, and present the most stringent limits to date on the merger rate of binary black holes with at least one subsolar-mass component. We use the upper limits to constrain two fiducial scenarios that could produce subsolar-mass black holes: primordial black holes (PBH) and a model of dissipative dark matter. The PBH model uses recent prescriptions for the merger rate of PBH binaries that include a rate suppression factor to effectively account for PBH early binary disruptions. If the PBHs are monochromatically distributed, we can exclude a dark matter fraction in PBHs fPBH0.6f_\mathrm{PBH} \gtrsim 0.6 (at 90% confidence) in the probed subsolar-mass range. However, if we allow for broad PBH mass distributions we are unable to rule out fPBH=1f_\mathrm{PBH} = 1. For the dissipative model, where the dark matter has chemistry that allows a small fraction to cool and collapse into black holes, we find an upper bound fDBH<105f_{\mathrm{DBH}} < 10^{-5} on the fraction of atomic dark matter collapsed into black holes.Comment: https://dcc.ligo.org/P220013

    GWTC-3:compact binary coalescences observed by LIGO and Virgo during the second part of the third observing run

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    The third Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog (GWTC-3) describes signals detected with Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo up to the end of their third observing run. Updating the previous GWTC-2.1, we present candidate gravitational waves from compact binary coalescences during the second half of the third observing run (O3b) between 1 November 2019, 15∶00 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and 27 March 2020, 17∶00 UTC. There are 35 compact binary coalescence candidates identified by at least one of our search algorithms with a probability of astrophysical origin astro&gt;0.5. Of these, 18 were previously reported as low-latency public alerts, and 17 are reported here for the first time. Based upon estimates for the component masses, our O3b candidates with astro&gt;0.5 are consistent with gravitational-wave signals from binary black holes or neutron-star–black-hole binaries, and we identify none from binary neutron stars. However, from the gravitational-wave data alone, we are not able to measure matter effects that distinguish whether the binary components are neutron stars or black holes. The range of inferred component masses is similar to that found with previous catalogs, but the O3b candidates include the first confident observations of neutron-star–black-hole binaries. Including the 35 candidates from O3b in addition to those from GWTC-2.1, GWTC-3 contains 90 candidates found by our analysis with astro&gt;0.5 across the first three observing runs. These observations of compact binary coalescences present an unprecedented view of the properties of black holes and neutron stars

    Observation of gravitational waves from the coalescence of a 2.5–4.5 M ⊙ compact object and a neutron star

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    We report the observation of a coalescing compact binary with component masses 2.5–4.5 M ⊙ and 1.2–2.0 M ⊙ (all measurements quoted at the 90% credible level). The gravitational-wave signal GW230529_181500 was observed during the fourth observing run of the LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA detector network on 2023 May 29 by the LIGO Livingston observatory. The primary component of the source has a mass less than 5 M ⊙ at 99% credibility. We cannot definitively determine from gravitational-wave data alone whether either component of the source is a neutron star or a black hole. However, given existing estimates of the maximum neutron star mass, we find the most probable interpretation of the source to be the coalescence of a neutron star with a black hole that has a mass between the most massive neutron stars and the least massive black holes observed in the Galaxy. We provisionally estimate a merger rate density of 55−47+127Gpc−3yr−1 for compact binary coalescences with properties similar to the source of GW230529_181500; assuming that the source is a neutron star–black hole merger, GW230529_181500-like sources may make up the majority of neutron star–black hole coalescences. The discovery of this system implies an increase in the expected rate of neutron star–black hole mergers with electromagnetic counterparts and provides further evidence for compact objects existing within the purported lower mass gap

    Open data from the third observing run of LIGO, Virgo, KAGRA, and GEO

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    The global network of gravitational-wave observatories now includes five detectors, namely LIGO Hanford, LIGO Livingston, Virgo, KAGRA, and GEO 600. These detectors collected data during their third observing run, O3, composed of three phases: O3a starting in 2019 April and lasting six months, O3b starting in 2019 November and lasting five months, and O3GK starting in 2020 April and lasting two weeks. In this paper we describe these data and various other science products that can be freely accessed through the Gravitational Wave Open Science Center at https://gwosc.org. The main data set, consisting of the gravitational-wave strain time series that contains the astrophysical signals, is released together with supporting data useful for their analysis and documentation, tutorials, as well as analysis software packages

    Search for eccentric black hole coalescences during the third observing run of LIGO and Virgo

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    Despite the growing number of confident binary black hole coalescences observed through gravitational waves so far, the astrophysical origin of these binaries remains uncertain. Orbital eccentricity is one of the clearest tracers of binary formation channels. Identifying binary eccentricity, however, remains challenging due to the limited availability of gravitational waveforms that include effects of eccentricity. Here, we present observational results for a waveform-independent search sensitive to eccentric black hole coalescences, covering the third observing run (O3) of the LIGO and Virgo detectors. We identified no new high-significance candidates beyond those that were already identified with searches focusing on quasi-circular binaries. We determine the sensitivity of our search to high-mass (total mass M&gt;70 M⊙) binaries covering eccentricities up to 0.3 at 15 Hz orbital frequency, and use this to compare model predictions to search results. Assuming all detections are indeed quasi-circular, for our fiducial population model, we place an upper limit for the merger rate density of high-mass binaries with eccentricities 0&lt;e≤0.3 at 0.33 Gpc−3 yr−1 at 90\% confidence level

    Observation of gravitational waves from the coalescence of a 2.5−4.5 M⊙ compact object and a neutron star

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    Ultralight vector dark matter search using data from the KAGRA O3GK run

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    Among the various candidates for dark matter (DM), ultralight vector DM can be probed by laser interferometric gravitational wave detectors through the measurement of oscillating length changes in the arm cavities. In this context, KAGRA has a unique feature due to differing compositions of its mirrors, enhancing the signal of vector DM in the length change in the auxiliary channels. Here we present the result of a search for U(1)B−L gauge boson DM using the KAGRA data from auxiliary length channels during the first joint observation run together with GEO600. By applying our search pipeline, which takes into account the stochastic nature of ultralight DM, upper bounds on the coupling strength between the U(1)B−L gauge boson and ordinary matter are obtained for a range of DM masses. While our constraints are less stringent than those derived from previous experiments, this study demonstrates the applicability of our method to the lower-mass vector DM search, which is made difficult in this measurement by the short observation time compared to the auto-correlation time scale of DM
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