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Title: Search for intermediate mass black hole binaries in the first and second observing runs of the Advanced LIGO and Virgo network

Journal Article · · Physical Review D
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Gravitational-wave astronomy has been firmly established with the detection of gravitational waves from the merger of ten stellar-mass binary black holes and a neutron star binary. This paper reports on the all-sky search for gravitational waves from intermediate mass black hole binaries in the first and second observing runs of the Advanced LIGO and Virgo network. The search uses three independent algorithms: two based on matched filtering of the data with waveform templates of gravitational-wave signals from compact binaries, and a third, model-independent algorithm that employs no signal model for the incoming signal. No intermediate mass black hole binary event is detected in this search. Consequently, we place upper limits on the merger rate density for a family of intermediate mass black hole binaries. In particular, we choose sources with total masses $$M={m}_{1}+{m}_{2}{\in}[120,800]\text{ }\text{ }{M}_{{\bigodot}}$$ and mass ratios $$q={m}_{2}/{m}_{1}{\in}[0.1,1.0]$$. For the first time, this calculation is done using numerical relativity waveforms (which include higher modes) as models of the real emitted signal. Here, we place a most stringent upper limit of 0.20 Gpc-3yr-1 (in comoving units at the 90% confidence level) for equal-mass binaries with individual masses $${m}_{1,2}=100\text{ }\text{ }{M}_{{\bigodot}}$$ and dimensionless spins $${{\chi}}_{1,2}=0.8$$ aligned with the orbital angular momentum of the binary. This improves by a factor of $${\sim}5$$ that reported after Advanced LIGO's first observing run.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Contributing Organization:
LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1603529
Journal Information:
Physical Review D, Vol. 100, Issue 6; ISSN 2470-0010
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 38 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (4)

Astrophysical signal consistency test adapted for gravitational-wave transient searches journal December 2019
Global Stellar Budget for LIGO Black Holes journal January 2020
Astrophysical signal consistency test adapted for gravitational-wave transient searches text January 2019
Global Stellar Budget for LIGO Black Holes text January 2019

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