Black Hole Ringdown: The Importance of Overtones
It is possible to infer the mass and spin of the remnant black hole from binary black hole mergers by comparing the ringdown gravitational wave signal to results from studies of perturbed Kerr spacetimes. Typically, these studies are based on the fundamental quasinormal mode of the dominant ℓ=m=2 ha...
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American Physical Society
2019-12-01
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Series: | Physical Review X |
Online Access: | http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.9.041060 |
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doaj-c781198a694e4458a1a8773f18baf5d12020-11-24T23:51:18ZengAmerican Physical SocietyPhysical Review X2160-33082019-12-019404106010.1103/PhysRevX.9.041060Black Hole Ringdown: The Importance of OvertonesMatthew GieslerMaximiliano IsiMark A. ScheelSaul A. TeukolskyIt is possible to infer the mass and spin of the remnant black hole from binary black hole mergers by comparing the ringdown gravitational wave signal to results from studies of perturbed Kerr spacetimes. Typically, these studies are based on the fundamental quasinormal mode of the dominant ℓ=m=2 harmonic. By modeling the ringdown of accurate numerical relativity simulations, we find, in agreement with previous findings, that the fundamental mode alone is insufficient to recover the true underlying mass and spin, unless the analysis is started very late in the ringdown. Including higher overtones associated with this ℓ=m=2 harmonic resolves this issue and provides an unbiased estimate of the true remnant parameters. Further, including overtones allows for the modeling of the ringdown signal for all times beyond the peak strain amplitude, indicating that the linear quasinormal regime starts much sooner than previously expected. This result implies that the spacetime is well described as a linearly perturbed black hole with a fixed mass and spin as early as the peak. A model for the ringdown beginning at the peak strain amplitude can exploit the higher signal-to-noise ratio in detectors, reducing uncertainties in the extracted remnant quantities. These results should be taken into consideration when testing the no-hair theorem.http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.9.041060 |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Matthew Giesler Maximiliano Isi Mark A. Scheel Saul A. Teukolsky |
spellingShingle |
Matthew Giesler Maximiliano Isi Mark A. Scheel Saul A. Teukolsky Black Hole Ringdown: The Importance of Overtones Physical Review X |
author_facet |
Matthew Giesler Maximiliano Isi Mark A. Scheel Saul A. Teukolsky |
author_sort |
Matthew Giesler |
title |
Black Hole Ringdown: The Importance of Overtones |
title_short |
Black Hole Ringdown: The Importance of Overtones |
title_full |
Black Hole Ringdown: The Importance of Overtones |
title_fullStr |
Black Hole Ringdown: The Importance of Overtones |
title_full_unstemmed |
Black Hole Ringdown: The Importance of Overtones |
title_sort |
black hole ringdown: the importance of overtones |
publisher |
American Physical Society |
series |
Physical Review X |
issn |
2160-3308 |
publishDate |
2019-12-01 |
description |
It is possible to infer the mass and spin of the remnant black hole from binary black hole mergers by comparing the ringdown gravitational wave signal to results from studies of perturbed Kerr spacetimes. Typically, these studies are based on the fundamental quasinormal mode of the dominant ℓ=m=2 harmonic. By modeling the ringdown of accurate numerical relativity simulations, we find, in agreement with previous findings, that the fundamental mode alone is insufficient to recover the true underlying mass and spin, unless the analysis is started very late in the ringdown. Including higher overtones associated with this ℓ=m=2 harmonic resolves this issue and provides an unbiased estimate of the true remnant parameters. Further, including overtones allows for the modeling of the ringdown signal for all times beyond the peak strain amplitude, indicating that the linear quasinormal regime starts much sooner than previously expected. This result implies that the spacetime is well described as a linearly perturbed black hole with a fixed mass and spin as early as the peak. A model for the ringdown beginning at the peak strain amplitude can exploit the higher signal-to-noise ratio in detectors, reducing uncertainties in the extracted remnant quantities. These results should be taken into consideration when testing the no-hair theorem. |
url |
http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.9.041060 |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT matthewgiesler blackholeringdowntheimportanceofovertones AT maximilianoisi blackholeringdowntheimportanceofovertones AT markascheel blackholeringdowntheimportanceofovertones AT saulateukolsky blackholeringdowntheimportanceofovertones |
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