Search

Certain dynamical black hole solutions can be mapped to static spacetimes by conformal metric transformations. This mapping provides a physical link between the conformal Killing horizon of the dynamical black hole and the Killing horizon of the static spacetime. Using the Vaidya spacetime as an example, we show how this conformal relation can be used to derive thermodynamic properties of such dynamical black holes. Although these horizons are defined quasi-locally and can be located by local experiments, they are distinct from other popular notions of quasi-local horizons such as apparent horizons. Thus in the dynamical Vaidya spacetime describing constant accretion of null dust, the conformal Killing horizon, which is null by construction, is the natural horizon to describe the black hole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advanced LIGO’s recent observations of gravitational waves (GWs) from merging binary black holes have opened up a unique laboratory to test general relativity (GR) in the highly relativistic regime. One of the tests used to establish the consistency of the first LIGO event with a binary black hole merger predicted by GR was the inspiral-merger-ringdown consistency test. This involves inferring the mass and spin of the remnant black hole from the inspiral (low-frequency) part of the observed signal and checking for the consistency of the inferred parameters with the same estimated from the post-inspiral (high-frequency) part of the signal. Based on the observed rate of binary black hole mergers, we expect the advanced GW observatories to observe hundreds of binary black hole mergers every year when operating at their design sensitivities, most of them with modest signal to noise ratios (SNRs). Anticipating such observations, this paper shows how constraints from a large number of events with modest SNRs can be combined to produce strong constraints on deviations from GR. Using kludge modified GR waveforms, we demonstrate how this test could identify certain types of deviations from GR if such deviations are present in the signal waveforms. We also study the robustness of this test against reasonable variations of a variety of different analysis parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We describe the PyCBC search for gravitational waves from compact-object binary coalescences in advanced gravitational-wave detector data. The search was used in the first Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) observing run and unambiguously identified two black hole binary mergers, GW150914 and GW151226. At its core, the PyCBC search performs a matched-filter search for binary merger signals using a bank of gravitational-wave template waveforms. We provide a complete description of the search pipeline including the steps used to mitigate the effects of noise transients in the data, identify candidate events and measure their statistical significance. The analysis is able to measure false-alarm rates as low as one per million years, required for confident detection of signals. Using data from initial LIGO's sixth science run, we show that the new analysis reduces the background noise in the search, giving a increase in sensitive volume for binary neutron star systems over previous searches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Terrestrial gravitational-wave (GW) detectors are mostly based on Michelson-type laser interferometers with arm lengths of a few km and signal bandwidths of tens of Hz to a few kHz. Many conceivable sources would emit GWs below 10 Hz. A low-frequency tensor GW detector can be constructed by combining six magnetically levitated superconducting test masses. Seismic noise and Newtonian gravity noise are serious obstacles in constructing terrestrial GW detectors at such low frequencies. By using the transverse nature of GWs, a full tensor detector, which can in principle distinguish GWs from near-field Newtonian gravity, can be constructed. Such a tensor detector is sensitive to GWs coming from any direction with any polarization; thus a single antenna is capable of resolving the source direction and polarization. We present a design concept of a tensor GW detector that could reach a strain sensitivity of 10−19–10−20 Hz−1/2 at 0.2–10 Hz, compute its intrinsic detector noise, and discuss procedures of mitigating the seismic and Newtonian noise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We discuss how the surface gravity can be classically defined for dynamical black holes. In particular, we focus on defining the surface gravity for locally defined horizons and compare a number of definitions proposed in the literature. We illustrate the differences between the various proposals in the case of an arbitrary dynamical, spherically symmetric black hole spacetime. We also discuss how the trapping horizon formalism of Hayward can be related to other constructions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]