http://arxiv.org/abs/2007.09156
Gravitational waves from binary black holes have the potential to yield information on both of the intrinsic parameters that characterize the compact objects: their masses and spins. While the component masses are usually resolvable, a measurement of the component spins is generally elusive. This is partially a consequence of asking about the spins of the most and least massive objects in each binary, a question which becomes ill-defined for equal-mass systems. In this paper we show that one can ask a different question of the data: what are the spins of the most-spinning object, and of the least-spinning object, in the binary? We show that this can significantly improve estimates of the individual spins, especially for binary systems with comparable masses. When applying this parameterization to the first 13 gravitational-wave events detected by the LIGO-Virgo collaboration, we find that the most-spinning object is constrained to have nonzero spin and to have significant support at the Kerr limit for GW151226 and GW170729. A joint analysis of the first ten binary black-holes shows that the configuration where all of the spins in the population are aligned with the orbital angular momentum is excluded from the 90% credible interval, regardless of the parameterization used, reinforcing indications from previous analyses.
S. Biscoveanu, M. Isi, S. Vitale, et. al.
Tue, 21 Jul 20
-399/75
Comments: N/A