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A multimode quasi-normal spectrum from a perturbed black hole

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arxiv 2105.05238 v4 pith:6X35IVRX submitted 2021-05-11 gr-qc astro-ph.HE

A multimode quasi-normal spectrum from a perturbed black hole

classification gr-qc astro-ph.HE
keywords blackholemodefinalharmonicringdownspectrumdominant
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal T4 reserved
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When two black holes merge, the late stage of gravitational wave emission is a superposition of exponentially damped sinusoids. According to the black hole no-hair theorem, this ringdown spectrum depends only on the mass and angular momentum of the final black hole. An observation of more than one ringdown mode can test this fundamental prediction of general relativity. Here we provide strong observational evidence for a multimode black hole ringdown spectrum using the gravitational wave event GW190521, with a maximum Bayes factor of $56\pm1$ ($1\sigma$ uncertainty) preferring two fundamental modes over one. The dominant mode is the $\ell=m=2$ harmonic, and the sub-dominant mode corresponds to the $\ell=m=3$ harmonic. The amplitude of this mode relative to the dominant harmonic is estimated to be $A_{330}/A_{220} = 0.2^{+0.2}_{-0.1}$. We estimate the redshifted mass and dimensionless spin of the final black hole as $330_{-40}^{+30}~\mathrm{M}_{\odot}$ and $0.86_{-0.11}^{+0.06}$, respectively. We find that the final black hole is consistent with the no hair theorem and constrain the fractional deviation from general relativity of the sub-dominant mode's frequency to be $-0.01^{+0.08}_{-0.09}$.

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Cited by 13 Pith papers

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

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    gr-qc 2026-05 conditional novelty 5.0

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