Published March 2022 | Version Published + Accepted Version
Journal Article Open

Search for intermediate-mass black hole binaries in the third observing run of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo

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Abstract

Intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) span the approximate mass range 100−10⁵ M⊙, between black holes (BHs) that formed by stellar collapse and the supermassive BHs at the centers of galaxies. Mergers of IMBH binaries are the most energetic gravitational-wave sources accessible by the terrestrial detector network. Searches of the first two observing runs of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo did not yield any significant IMBH binary signals. In the third observing run (O3), the increased network sensitivity enabled the detection of GW190521, a signal consistent with a binary merger of mass ∼150 M⊙ providing direct evidence of IMBH formation. Here, we report on a dedicated search of O3 data for further IMBH binary mergers, combining both modeled (matched filter) and model-independent search methods. We find some marginal candidates, but none are sufficiently significant to indicate detection of further IMBH mergers. We quantify the sensitivity of the individual search methods and of the combined search using a suite of IMBH binary signals obtained via numerical relativity, including the effects of spins misaligned with the binary orbital axis, and present the resulting upper limits on astrophysical merger rates. Our most stringent limit is for equal mass and aligned spin BH binary of total mass 200 M⊙ and effective aligned spin 0.8 at 0.056 Gpc⁻³ yr⁻¹ (90% confidence), a factor of 3.5 more constraining than previous LIGO-Virgo limits. We also update the estimated rate of mergers similar to GW190521 to 0.08 Gpc⁻³ yr⁻¹.

Additional Information

© ESO 2022. Received 2 June 2021; Accepted 9 September 2021; Published online 16 March 2022. This material is based upon work supported by NSF's LIGO Laboratory which is a major facility fully funded by the National Science Foundation. The authors also gratefully acknowledge the support of the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) of the United Kingdom, the Max-Planck-Society (MPS), and the State of Niedersachsen/Germany for support of the construction of Advanced LIGO and construction and operation of the GEO600 detector. Additional support for Advanced LIGO was provided by the Australian Research Council. The authors gratefully acknowledge the Italian Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, for the construction and operation of the Virgo detector and the creation and support of the EGO consortium. The authors also gratefully acknowledge research support from these agencies as well as by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research of India, the Department of Science and Technology, India, the Science & Engineering Research Board (SERB), India, the Ministry of Human Resource Development, India, the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación, the Vicepresidència i Conselleria d'Innovació, Recerca i Turisme and the Conselleria d'Educació i Universitat del Govern de les Illes Balears, the Conselleria d'Innovació, Universitats, Ciència i Societat Digital de la Generalitat Valenciana and the CERCA Programme Generalitat de Catalunya, Spain, the National Science Centre of Poland and the Foundation for Polish Science (FNP), the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, the Russian Science Foundation, the European Commission, the European Regional Development Funds (ERDF), the Royal Society, the Scottish Funding Council, the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance, the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (OTKA), the French Lyon Institute of Origins (LIO), the Belgian Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (FRS-FNRS), Actions de Recherche Concertées (ARC) and Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek – Vlaanderen (FWO), Belgium, the Paris Île-de-France Region, the National Research, Development and Innovation Office Hungary (NKFIH), the National Research Foundation of Korea, the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council Canada, Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI), the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovations, the International Center for Theoretical Physics South American Institute for Fundamental Research (ICTP-SAIFR), the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), the Leverhulme Trust, the Research Corporation, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), Taiwan, the United States Department of Energy, and the Kavli Foundation. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the NSF, STFC, INFN and CNRS for provision of computational resources. This work was supported by MEXT, JSPS Leading-edge Research Infrastructure Program, JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Specially Promoted Research 26000005, JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas 2905: JP17H06358, JP17H06361 and JP17H06364, JSPS Core-to-Core Program A. Advanced Research Networks, JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (S) 17H06133, the joint research program of the Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, University of Tokyo, National Research Foundation (NRF) and Computing Infrastructure Project of KISTI-GSDC in Korea, Academia Sinica (AS), AS Grid Center (ASGC) and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) in Taiwan under grants including AS-CDA-105-M06, Advanced Technology Center (ATC) of NAOJ, and Mechanical Engineering Center of KEK. We would like to thank all of the essential workers who put their health at risk during the COVID-19 pandemic, without whom we would not have been able to complete this work.

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Accepted Version - 2105.15120.pdf

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Identifiers

Eprint ID
114398
Resolver ID
CaltechAUTHORS:20220420-457301800

Related works

Funding

NSF
Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)
Max-Planck-Society (MPS)
State of Niedersachsen/Germany
Australian Research Council
Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN)
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO)
Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (India)
Department of Science and Technology (India)
Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB)
Ministry of Human Resource Development (India)
Agencia Estatal de Investigación
Vicepresidència i Conselleria d'Innovació, Recerca i Turisme
Conselleria d'Educació i Universitat del Govern de les Illes Balears
Conselleria d'Innovació, Universitats, Ciència i Societat Digital de la Generalitat Valenciana
Generalitat de Catalunya
National Science Centre (Poland)
Foundation for Polish Science
Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)
Russian Foundation for Basic Research
Russian Science Foundation
European Commission
European Regional Development Funds (ERDF)
Royal Society
Scottish Funding Council
Scottish Universities Physics Alliance
Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (OTKA)
Lyon Institute of Origins (LIO)
Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS)
Actions de Recherche Concertées (ARC)
Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (FWO)
Paris Île-de-France Region
National Research, Development and Innovation Office (Hungary)
National Research Foundation of Korea
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)
Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI)
Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia, Inovações e Comunicações (MCTIC)
International Center for Theoretical Physics South American Institute for Fundamental Research (ICTP-SAIFR)
Research Grants Council of Hong Kong
National Natural Science Foundation of China
Leverhulme Trust
Research Corporation
Department of Energy (DOE)
Kavli Foundation
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT)
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)
26000005
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)
JP17H06358
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)
JP17H06361
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)
JP17H06364
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)
17H06133
Institute for Cosmic Ray Research
University of Tokyo
Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI)
Academia Sinica
Ministry of Science and Technology (Taipei)
AS-CDA-105-M06
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK)

Dates

Created
2022-04-25
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Updated
2023-03-16
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