1. Constraints on Kerr-Newman black holes from merger-ringdown gravitational-wave observations
- Author
-
Gregorio Carullo, Danny Laghi, Nathan K. Johnson-McDaniel, Walter Del Pozzo, Óscar J. C. Dias, Mahdi Godazgar, and Jorge E. Santos
- Subjects
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE) ,General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology ,High Energy Physics - Phenomenology ,High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph) ,Astrophysics::High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena ,FOS: Physical sciences ,General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) ,Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics ,Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena - Abstract
We construct a template to model the post-merger phase of a binary black hole coalescence in the presence of a remnant $U(1)$ charge. We include the quasi-normal modes typically dominant during a binary black hole coalescence, $(\ell,m,n) = \{(2,2,0), (2,2,1)\}$ and also present analytical fits for the quasinormal mode frequencies of a Kerr-Newman black hole in terms of its spin and charge, here also including the $(3,3,0)$ mode. Aside from astrophysical electric charge, our template can accommodate extensions of the Standard Model, such as a dark photon. Applying the model to LIGO-Virgo detections, we find that we are unable to distinguish between the charged and uncharged hypotheses from a purely post-merger analysis of the current events. However, restricting the mass and spin to values compatible with the analysis of the full signal, we obtain a 90th percentile bound $\bar{q} < 0.33$ on the black hole charge-to-mass ratio, for the most favorable case of GW150914. Under similar assumptions, by simulating a typical loud signal observed by the LIGO-Virgo network at its design sensitivity, we assess that this model can provide a robust measurement of the charge-to-mass ratio only for values $\bar{q} \gtrsim 0.5$; here we also assume that the mode amplitudes are similar to the uncharged case in creating our simulated signal. Lower values, down to $\bar{q} \sim 0.3$, could instead be detected when evaluating the consistency of the pre-merger and post-merger emission., 21 pages, 11 figures, 4 tables. Matches published version
- Published
- 2022
- Full Text
- View/download PDF