Searching for Asymmetric and Heavily Precessing Binary Black Holes in the Gravitational Wave Data from the LIGO Third Observing Run
Leveraging the features of the GstLAL pipeline, we present the results of a matched filtering search for asymmetric binary black hole systems with heavily misaligned spins in LIGO and Virgo data taken during the third observing run. Our target systems show strong imprints of precession whereas current searches have nonoptimal sensitivity in detecting them. After measuring the sensitivity improvement brought by our search over standard spin-aligned searches, we report the detection of 30 gravitational wave events already discovered in the latest version of the Gravitational Wave Transient Catalog. However, we do not find any additional significant gravitational wave candidates. Our results allow us to place an upper limit of R_{90%}=0.28_{-0.04}^{+0.33} Gpc^{-3} yr^{-1} on the merger rate of a hypothetical subpopulation of asymmetric, heavily precessing signals, not identified by other searches. Since our upper limit is consistent with the latest rate estimates from the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaboration, our findings rule out the existence of a yet-to-be-discovered population of precessing binaries.
Authors
- S. Morisaki (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8445-6747)
- M. Wade (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5703-4469)
- Sarah Caudill (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8927-6673)
- Pratyusava Baral (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6308-211X)
- Ron Tapia (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4442-4166)
- Cort Posnansky
- Alvin K. Y. Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6728-6523)
- A. D. Viets (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4241-1428)
- R. Harada (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-8742-6174)
- J. George (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7797-7683)
- U. S. Shah (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8249-7425)
- Leo Tsukada (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0596-5648)
- Shomik Adhicary
- R. Huxford (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-2686-5022)
- R. M. Magee (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9769-531X)
- B. Cousins (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7026-1340)
- S. Sakon (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5861-3024)
- A. C. Baylor (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0918-0864)
- James Kennington (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6899-3833)
- S. Sachdev (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0525-2317)
- T. Tsutsui (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2909-0471)
- P. Godwin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7489-4751)
- Y.-J. Huang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2952-8429)
- Anarya Ray (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7322-4748)
- L. E. Wade (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8135-9351)
- Becca Ewing (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9178-5744)
- S. Schmidt (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8206-8089)
- C. Messick (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8230-3309)
- K. C. Cannon (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4068-6572)
- D. Singh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9675-4584)
- J. D. E. Creighton (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3600-2406)
- K. Ueno (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0424-3045)
- Debnandini Mukherjee (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7335-9418)
- Alex Pace
- Chad Hanna (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0965-7493)
- Heather Fong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2722-6918)
- Duncan Meacher
- Prathamesh Joshi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4148-4932)
- W. Niu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1470-532X)
- M Jain
- S. Kuwahara
- A. Doke (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3895-7994)
Institutions
- Concordia University Wisconsin (US)
- Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (IN)
- California Institute of Technology (US)
- Marshall Space Flight Center (US)
- Georgia Institute of Technology (US)
- Pennsylvania State University (US)
- University of British Columbia (CA)
- Kenyon College (US)
- Utrecht University (NL)
- University of Illinois System (US)
- National Institute for Subatomic Physics (NL)
- University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (US)
- Institute for Cosmic Ray Research (JP)
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US)
- The University of Tokyo (JP)
- University of Alabama in Huntsville (US)
- The University of Texas at Austin (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physical Review Letters
- Published
- 2024-11-15
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.133.201401
- Citations
- 5
- Primary Topic
- Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.66
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- California Institute of Technology
- University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Pennsylvania State University
- Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
- Academia Sinica
- Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
- National Research Foundation of Korea
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
- Ministry of Science and ICT, South Korea
- Institute for Computational and Data Sciences, Pennsylvania State University
- Science and Technology Facilities Council
- Australian Research Council
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
- Instituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare