Black hole observations from Advanced LIGO

Document #:

LIGO-G1600868-v2

Document type:

G - Presentations (eg Graphics)

Abstract:

The era of gravitational-wave astronomy began with Advanced LIGO's detection of GW150914. This signal has been identified as originating from the merger of a ~36 solar mass and a ~29 solar mass black hole to form a ~62 solar mass black hole at a redshift of ~0.09. In this talk, I will explain how we infer source parameters from gravitational-wave signals, and discuss the results of this analysis for LIGO's first set of observations. Gravitational waves give us a new means of exploring the properties of black holes, and I will briefly highlight some of the astrophysical implications of these measurements.

Files in Document:

• Presentation (Berry_NAM.pdf, 14.1 MB)

Topics:

• Data analysis software
• Compact Binaries
• Astrophysics / Multi-messenger

Author Groups:

• LVC

Notes and Changes:

Contributed talk for NAM 2016 (27 June 2016). P&P comments addressed.