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GWTC-2.1: Deep extended catalog of compact binary coalescences observed by LIGO and Virgo during the first half of the third observing run

  • (The LIGO Scientific Collaboration and the Virgo Collaboration)
  • California Institute of Technology
  • Louisiana State University
  • University of Salerno
  • National Institute for Nuclear Physics
  • Monash University
  • National Science Foundation
  • University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
  • Australian National University
  • Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute)
  • Leibniz University Hannover
  • Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics India
  • University of Cambridge
  • Friedrich Schiller University Jena
  • University of Birmingham
  • Northwestern University
  • Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais
  • Cardiff University
  • Tata Institute of Fundamental Research
  • University of Naples Federico II
  • Universite Claude Bernard Lyon 1
  • University of Barcelona
  • Université Grenoble Alpes
  • Gran Sasso Science Institute
  • University of Strathclyde
  • University of Udine
  • Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
  • Université Paris Cité
  • California State University Fullerton
  • Université Paris-Saclay
  • European Gravitational Observatory
  • SPIC Science Foundation
  • Columbia University
  • University of Urbino

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

450 Scopus citations

Abstract

The second Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog, GWTC-2, reported on 39 compact binary coalescences observed by the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors between 1 April 2019 15∶00 UTC and 1 October 2019 15∶00 UTC. Here, we present GWTC-2.1, which reports on a deeper list of candidate events observed over the same period. We analyze the final version of the strain data over this period with improved calibration and better subtraction of excess noise, which has been publicly released. We employ three matched-filter search pipelines for candidate identification, and estimate the probability of astrophysical origin for each candidate event. While GWTC-2 used a false alarm rate threshold of 2 per year, we include in GWTC-2.1, 1201 candidates that pass a false alarm rate threshold of 2 per day. We calculate the source properties of a subset of 44 high-significance candidates that have a probability of astrophysical origin greater than 0.5. Of these candidates, 36 have been reported in GWTC-2. We also calculate updated source properties for all binary black hole events previously reported in GWTC-1. If the eight additional high-significance candidates presented here are astrophysical, the mass range of events that are unambiguously identified as binary black holes (both objects ≥3M⊙) is increased compared to GWTC-2, with total masses from ∼14M⊙ for GW190924_021846 to ∼182M⊙ for GW190426_190642. Source properties calculated using our default prior suggest that the primary components of two new candidate events (GW190403_051519 and GW190426_190642) fall in the mass gap predicted by pair-instability supernova theory. We also expand the population of binaries with significantly asymmetric mass ratios reported in GWTC-2 by an additional two events (the mass ratio is less than 0.65 and 0.44 at 90% probability for GW190403_051519 and GW190917_114630 respectively), and find that two of the eight new events have effective inspiral spins χeff>0 (at 90% credibility), while no binary is consistent with χeff<0 at the same significance. We provide updated estimates for rates of binary black hole and binary neutron star coalescence in the local Universe.

Original languageEnglish
Article number022001
JournalPhysical Review D
Volume109
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 15 2024

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