Submitting Campus
Prescott
Department
Physics and Astronomy
Document Type
Article
Publication/Presentation Date
12-18-2017
Abstract/Description
On 2017 June 8 at 02:01:16.49 UTC, a gravitational-wave (GW) signal from the merger of two stellar-mass black holes was observed by the two Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory detectors with a network signal-to-noise ratio of 13. This system is the lightest black hole binary so far observed, with component masses of 12 +7 -2 M⨀ and 7 +2 -2 M⨀ (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 GWs 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.
Publication Title
The Astrophysical Journal Letters
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/aa9f0c
Publisher
The American Astronomical Society
Required Publisher’s Statement
Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
Scholarly Commons Citation
Abbott, B. P., AultONeal, K., Gaudio, S., Gill, K., Gretarsson, E. M., Hughey, B., Muratore, M., Pratt, J. W., Schwalbe, S. G., Staats, K., Szczepańczyk, M. J., Zanolin, M., & al., e. (2017). GW170608: Observation of a 19 Solar-Mass Binary Black Hole Coalescence. The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 851(2). https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/aa9f0c
