Poster Session I
Project Type
Poster
Project Funding and Affiliations
NSF, California Institute of Technology, Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO)
Faculty Mentor’s Full Name
Deborah Good
Faculty Mentor’s Department
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Additional Mentor
Simona J. Miller, smiller@caltech.edu, Eliot Finch efinch@caltech.edu, Keefe Mitman kem343@cornell.edu
Abstract / Artist's Statement
The effect of progenitor masses and spins on the inspiral phase of a gravitational wave signal from a binary black hole merger is relatively well understood for the case where spins are aligned with the orbital angular momentum. Less is known about how progenitor properties -- especially misaligned spins -- impact the ringdown. The accuracy and precision with which inspiral parameters (component masses and spins) can be inferred from the ringdown alone remains an open question. As several high-mass (most ringdown-dominated) systems observed by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) have misaligned spins, the ability to predict inspiral properties from the ringdown would improve existing measurements, and potentially give new insight into this portion of the binary black hole population. We introduce a sampling method for inverting ringdown surrogate models, allowing us to map from a ringdown waveform back to inspiral parameters. The surrogate used for parameter estimation in this project reasonably converges for systems with near-equal masses and smaller spin magnitudes, but provides less accurate estimates in more extreme regions of the parameter space.
Category
Physical Sciences
Inferring Properties of Binary Black Hole Mergers from the Ringdown
UC South Ballroom
The effect of progenitor masses and spins on the inspiral phase of a gravitational wave signal from a binary black hole merger is relatively well understood for the case where spins are aligned with the orbital angular momentum. Less is known about how progenitor properties -- especially misaligned spins -- impact the ringdown. The accuracy and precision with which inspiral parameters (component masses and spins) can be inferred from the ringdown alone remains an open question. As several high-mass (most ringdown-dominated) systems observed by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) have misaligned spins, the ability to predict inspiral properties from the ringdown would improve existing measurements, and potentially give new insight into this portion of the binary black hole population. We introduce a sampling method for inverting ringdown surrogate models, allowing us to map from a ringdown waveform back to inspiral parameters. The surrogate used for parameter estimation in this project reasonably converges for systems with near-equal masses and smaller spin magnitudes, but provides less accurate estimates in more extreme regions of the parameter space.