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Evidence of Large Recoil Velocity from a Black Hole Merger Signal

Vijay Varma1,*, Sylvia Biscoveanu2,3, Tousif Islam4,5, Feroz H. Shaik4,5, Carl-Johan Haster2,3, Maximiliano Isi6, Will M. Farr7,6, Scott E. Field4,5, and Salvatore Vitale2,3

  • 1Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute), Am Mühlenberg 1, Potsdam 14476, Germany
  • 2LIGO Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
  • 3Department of Physics and Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
  • 4Department of Mathematics, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, Massachusetts 02747, USA
  • 5Center for Scientific Computing and Data Science Research, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, Massachusetts 02747, USA
  • 6Center for Computational Astrophysics, Flatiron Institute, New York, New York 10010, USA
  • 7Department of Physics and Astronomy, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York 11794, USA

  • *vijay.varma@aei.mpg.de
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 128, 191102 – Published 12 May, 2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.191102

Abstract

The final black hole left behind after a binary black hole merger can attain a recoil velocity, or a “kick,” reaching values up to 5000  km/s. This phenomenon has important implications for gravitational wave astronomy, black hole formation scenarios, testing general relativity, and galaxy evolution. We consider the gravitational wave signal from the binary black hole merger GW200129_065458 (henceforth referred to as GW200129), which has been shown to exhibit strong evidence of orbital precession. Using numerical relativity surrogate models, we constrain the kick velocity of GW200129 to vf∼1542−1098+747  km/s or vf≳698  km/s (one-sided limit), at 90% credibility. This marks the first identification of a large kick velocity for an individual gravitational wave event. Given the kick velocity of GW200129, we estimate that there is a less than 0.48% (7.7%) probability that the remnant black hole after the merger would be retained by globular (nuclear star) clusters. Finally, we show that kick effects are not expected to cause biases in ringdown tests of general relativity for this event, although this may change in the future with improved detectors.

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synopsis

Merged Black Hole on the Run

Published 12 May, 2022

Analysis of the gravitational waves from a black hole merger suggests that the final black hole received a kick that will send it out of its galaxy.

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Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. Lett. 128, 191102– Published 12 May, 2022
  • Received 11 January 2022
  • Revised 10 March 2022
  • Accepted 11 April 2022
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