Inferring Parameters of GW170502: The Loudest Intermediate-mass Black Hole Trigger in LIGO’s O1/O2 data. (arXiv:1912.10533v2 [gr-qc] UPDATED)
<a href="http://arxiv.org/find/gr-qc/1/au:+Udall_R/0/1/0/all/0/1">Richard Udall</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/gr-qc/1/au:+Jani_K/0/1/0/all/0/1">Karan Jani</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/gr-qc/1/au:+Lange_J/0/1/0/all/0/1">Jacob Lange</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/gr-qc/1/au:+OShaughnessy_R/0/1/0/all/0/1">Richard O'Shaughnessy</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/gr-qc/1/au:+Clark_J/0/1/0/all/0/1">James Clark</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/gr-qc/1/au:+Cadonati_L/0/1/0/all/0/1">Laura Cadonati</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/gr-qc/1/au:+Shoemaker_D/0/1/0/all/0/1">Deirdre Shoemaker</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/gr-qc/1/au:+Holley_Bockelmann_K/0/1/0/all/0/1">Kelly Holley-Bockelmann</a>
Gravitational wave (GW) measurements provide the most robust constraints of
the mass of astrophysical black holes. Using state-of-the-art GW signal models
and a unique parameter estimation technique, we infer the source parameters of
the loudest marginal trigger, GW170502, found by LIGO from 2015 to 2017. If
this trigger is assumed to be a binary black hole merger, we find it
corresponds to a total mass in the source frame of
$157^{+55}_{-41}~rm{M}_odot$ at redshift $z=1.37^{+0.93}_{-0.64}$. The
primary and secondary black hole masses are constrained to
$94^{+44}_{-28}~rm{M}_{odot}$ and $62^{+30}_{-25}~rm{M}_{odot}$
respectively, with 90% confidence. Across all signal models, we find $gtrsim
70%$ probability for the effective spin parameter $chi_mathrm{eff}>0.1$.
Furthermore, we find that the inclusion of higher-order modes in the analysis
narrows the confidence region for the primary black hole mass by 10%, however,
the evidence for these modes in the data remains negligible. The techniques
outlined in this study could lead to robust inference of the physical
parameters for all intermediate-mass black hole binary candidates
$(gtrsim100~mathrm{M}_odot)$ in the current GW network.
Gravitational wave (GW) measurements provide the most robust constraints of
the mass of astrophysical black holes. Using state-of-the-art GW signal models
and a unique parameter estimation technique, we infer the source parameters of
the loudest marginal trigger, GW170502, found by LIGO from 2015 to 2017. If
this trigger is assumed to be a binary black hole merger, we find it
corresponds to a total mass in the source frame of
$157^{+55}_{-41}~rm{M}_odot$ at redshift $z=1.37^{+0.93}_{-0.64}$. The
primary and secondary black hole masses are constrained to
$94^{+44}_{-28}~rm{M}_{odot}$ and $62^{+30}_{-25}~rm{M}_{odot}$
respectively, with 90% confidence. Across all signal models, we find $gtrsim
70%$ probability for the effective spin parameter $chi_mathrm{eff}>0.1$.
Furthermore, we find that the inclusion of higher-order modes in the analysis
narrows the confidence region for the primary black hole mass by 10%, however,
the evidence for these modes in the data remains negligible. The techniques
outlined in this study could lead to robust inference of the physical
parameters for all intermediate-mass black hole binary candidates
$(gtrsim100~mathrm{M}_odot)$ in the current GW network.
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