Pith. sign in

REVIEW 5 cited by

Not yet reviewed by Pith; the record is open.

This paper has not been read by Pith yet. Machine review is queued; the pith claim, tier, and objections will appear here once it completes.

SPECIMEN: schema-true, not a live event

T0 review · schema-true

One-sentence machine reading of the paper's core claim.

pith:XXXXXXXX · record.json · timestamp

arxiv 2104.01906 v2 pith:HNIYRDUK submitted 2021-04-05 gr-qc astro-ph.HE

Constraints on quasi-normal-mode frequencies with LIGO-Virgo binary-black-hole observations

classification gr-qc astro-ph.HE
keywords deltafrequenciesligo-virgobbhsconjecturefirstno-hairringdown
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal T4 reserved
0 comments
read the original abstract

The no-hair conjecture in General Relativity (GR) states that a Kerr black hole (BH) is completely described by its mass and spin. As a consequence, the complex quasi-normal-mode (QNM) frequencies of a binary-black-hole (BBH) ringdown can be uniquely determined by the mass and spin of the remnant object. Conversely, measurement of the QNM frequencies could be an independent test of the no-hair conjecture. This paper extends to spinning BHs earlier work that proposed to test the no-hair conjecture by measuring the complex QNM frequencies of a BBH ringdown using parameterized inspiral-merger-ringdown waveforms in the effective-one-body formalism, thereby taking full advantage of the entire signal power and removing dependency on the predicted or estimated start time of the ringdown. Our method was used to analyze the properties of the merger remnants for BBHs observed by LIGO-Virgo in the first half of their third observing (O3a) run. After testing our method with GR and non-GR synthetic-signal injections in Gaussian noise, we analyze, for the first time, two BBHs from the first (O1) and second (O2) LIGO-Virgo observing runs, and two additional BBHs from the O3a run. We then provide joint constraints with published results from the O3a run. In the most agnostic and conservative scenario where we combine the information from different events using a hierarchical approach, we obtain, at $90\%$ credibility, that the fractional deviations in the frequency (damping time) of the dominant QNM are $\delta f_{220}=0.03^{+0.10}_{-0.09}$ ($\delta \tau_{220}=0.10^{+0.44}_{-0.39}$), respectively, an improvement of a factor of $\sim 4$ ($\sim 2$) over the results obtained with our model in the LIGO-Virgo publication. The single-event most-stringent constraint to date continues to be GW150914 for which we obtain $\delta f_{220}=0.05^{+0.11}_{-0.07}$ and $\delta \tau_{220}=0.07^{+0.26}_{-0.23}$.

discussion (0)

Sign in with ORCID, Apple, or X to comment. Anyone can read and Pith papers without signing in.

Forward citations

Cited by 5 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score.

  1. GW240925 and GW250207: Astrophysical Calibration of Gravitational-wave Detectors

    gr-qc 2026-05 unverdicted novelty 8.0

    The first informative astrophysical calibration of gravitational-wave detectors is reported using GW240925 and GW250207.

  2. Testing General Relativity with GWTC-4.0 through mixture models

    gr-qc 2026-07 conditional novelty 6.0

    A mixture-model framework for combining gravitational-wave tests of General Relativity yields Bayes factors of 10-20 favoring GR, substantially lower than existing methods that assume uniform deviations across events.

  3. Plunge-Merger-Ringdown Tests of General Relativity with GW250114

    gr-qc 2026-01 unverdicted novelty 6.0

    GW250114 data constrains GR deviations in merger amplitude to 10% and frequency to 4% at 90% CL, with first bounds on the (4,4) mode frequency at 6%.

  4. Black Hole Spectroscopy and Tests of General Relativity with GW250114

    gr-qc 2025-09 accept novelty 6.0

    GW250114 data confirm the remnant is consistent with a Kerr black hole and bound the dominant quadrupolar mode frequency to within a few percent of the GR prediction, with constraints tighter than prior multi-event catalogs.

  5. Tests of General Relativity with GWTC-3

    gr-qc 2021-12 accept novelty 3.0

    No evidence for physics beyond general relativity is found in the analysis of 15 GW events from GWTC-3, with consistency in residuals, PN parameters, and remnant properties.