A generalized precession parameter xp to interpret gravitational-wave data

Davide Gerosa; Matthew Mould; Daria Gangardt; Patricia Schmidt; Geraint Pratten; Lucy M. Thomas

doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.103.064067

A generalized precession parameter x_p to interpret gravitational-wave data

Davide Gerosa^*, Matthew Mould, Daria Gangardt, Patricia Schmidt, Geraint Pratten, Lucy M. Thomas

^*Corresponding author for this work

Physics and Astronomy

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

14 Citations (Scopus)

49 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Originally designed for waveform approximants, the effective precession parameter χ_p is the most commonly used quantity to characterize spin-precession effects in gravitational-wave observations of black-hole binary coalescences. We point out that the current definition of χp retains some, but not all, variations taking place on the precession timescale. We rectify this inconsistency and propose more general definitions that either fully consider or fully average those oscillations. Our generalized parameter χ_p∈[0,2] presents an exclusive region χ_p>1 that can only be populated by binaries with two precessing spins. We apply our prescriptions to current LIGO/Virgo events and find that posterior distributions of χ_p tend to show longer tails at larger values. This appears to be a generic feature, implying that (i) current χ_p measurement errors might be underestimated, but also that (ii) evidence for spin precession in current data might be stronger than previously inferred. Among the gravitational-wave events released to date, that which shows the most striking behavior is GW190521.

Original language	English
Article number	064067
Number of pages	12
Journal	Physical Review D
Volume	103
Issue number	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.103.064067
Publication status	Published - 15 Mar 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We thank Vishal Baibhav, Emanuele Berti, Riccardo Buscicchio, Michael Kesden, Christopher Moore, Richard O’Shaughnessy, Isobel Romero-Shaw, Nathan Steinle, Evangelos Stoikos, and Daniel Wysocki for discussions, constructive comments, and technical help. We thank the LIGO/Virgo Collaboration and the authors of Ref. for their public data releases. We thank Katerina Chatziioannou and the authors of Ref. for sharing their posterior samples with us. D. Ger., M. M., and D. Gan. are supported by European Union H2020 ERC Starting Grant No. 945155-GWmining and Royal Society Grant No. RGS-R2-202004. D. Ger. is supported by Leverhulme Trust Grant No. RPG-2019-350. M. M., D. Gan., and L. M. T. are supported by the STFC and the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Birmingham. P. S. is supported by Dutch Research Council (NWO) Veni Grant No. 680-47-460. Computational work was performed on the University of Birmingham BlueBEAR cluster, the Athena cluster at HPC by EPSRC Grant No. EP/P020232/1, and the Maryland Advanced Research Computing Center (MARCC).

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)

Access to Document

10.1103/PhysRevD.103.064067Licence: None: All rights reserved

GerosaD2021generalizedFinal published version, 1.1 MBLicence: None: All rights reserved

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2011.11948Licence: Other (please provide link to licence statement

Black-hole spins and accretion discs with gravitational waves from space
Gerosa, D.
Leverhulme Trust
15/11/20 → 31/01/24
Project: Research
The supermassive black-hole binary puzzle: putting the pieces together
Gerosa, D.
The Royal Society
1/10/20 → 30/09/21
Project: Research Councils

Cite this

@article{fba711abd94a485fa7753e4d7cff09b6,

title = "A generalized precession parameter xp to interpret gravitational-wave data",

abstract = "Originally designed for waveform approximants, the effective precession parameter χp is the most commonly used quantity to characterize spin-precession effects in gravitational-wave observations of black-hole binary coalescences. We point out that the current definition of χp retains some, but not all, variations taking place on the precession timescale. We rectify this inconsistency and propose more general definitions that either fully consider or fully average those oscillations. Our generalized parameter χp∈[0,2] presents an exclusive region χp>1 that can only be populated by binaries with two precessing spins. We apply our prescriptions to current LIGO/Virgo events and find that posterior distributions of χp tend to show longer tails at larger values. This appears to be a generic feature, implying that (i) current χp measurement errors might be underestimated, but also that (ii) evidence for spin precession in current data might be stronger than previously inferred. Among the gravitational-wave events released to date, that which shows the most striking behavior is GW190521.",

author = "Davide Gerosa and Matthew Mould and Daria Gangardt and Patricia Schmidt and Geraint Pratten and Thomas, {Lucy M.}",

note = "Funding Information: We thank Vishal Baibhav, Emanuele Berti, Riccardo Buscicchio, Michael Kesden, Christopher Moore, Richard O{\textquoteright}Shaughnessy, Isobel Romero-Shaw, Nathan Steinle, Evangelos Stoikos, and Daniel Wysocki for discussions, constructive comments, and technical help. We thank the LIGO/Virgo Collaboration and the authors of Ref. for their public data releases. We thank Katerina Chatziioannou and the authors of Ref. for sharing their posterior samples with us. D. Ger., M. M., and D. Gan. are supported by European Union H2020 ERC Starting Grant No. 945155-GWmining and Royal Society Grant No. RGS-R2-202004. D. Ger. is supported by Leverhulme Trust Grant No. RPG-2019-350. M. M., D. Gan., and L. M. T. are supported by the STFC and the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Birmingham. P. S. is supported by Dutch Research Council (NWO) Veni Grant No. 680-47-460. Computational work was performed on the University of Birmingham BlueBEAR cluster, the Athena cluster at HPC by EPSRC Grant No. EP/P020232/1, and the Maryland Advanced Research Computing Center (MARCC).",

year = "2021",

month = mar,

day = "15",

doi = "10.1103/PhysRevD.103.064067",

language = "English",

volume = "103",

journal = "Physical Review D",

issn = "2470-0010",

publisher = "American Physical Society (APS)",

number = "6",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - A generalized precession parameter xp to interpret gravitational-wave data

AU - Gerosa, Davide

AU - Mould, Matthew

AU - Gangardt, Daria

AU - Schmidt, Patricia

AU - Pratten, Geraint

AU - Thomas, Lucy M.

N1 - Funding Information: We thank Vishal Baibhav, Emanuele Berti, Riccardo Buscicchio, Michael Kesden, Christopher Moore, Richard O’Shaughnessy, Isobel Romero-Shaw, Nathan Steinle, Evangelos Stoikos, and Daniel Wysocki for discussions, constructive comments, and technical help. We thank the LIGO/Virgo Collaboration and the authors of Ref. for their public data releases. We thank Katerina Chatziioannou and the authors of Ref. for sharing their posterior samples with us. D. Ger., M. M., and D. Gan. are supported by European Union H2020 ERC Starting Grant No. 945155-GWmining and Royal Society Grant No. RGS-R2-202004. D. Ger. is supported by Leverhulme Trust Grant No. RPG-2019-350. M. M., D. Gan., and L. M. T. are supported by the STFC and the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Birmingham. P. S. is supported by Dutch Research Council (NWO) Veni Grant No. 680-47-460. Computational work was performed on the University of Birmingham BlueBEAR cluster, the Athena cluster at HPC by EPSRC Grant No. EP/P020232/1, and the Maryland Advanced Research Computing Center (MARCC).

PY - 2021/3/15

Y1 - 2021/3/15

N2 - Originally designed for waveform approximants, the effective precession parameter χp is the most commonly used quantity to characterize spin-precession effects in gravitational-wave observations of black-hole binary coalescences. We point out that the current definition of χp retains some, but not all, variations taking place on the precession timescale. We rectify this inconsistency and propose more general definitions that either fully consider or fully average those oscillations. Our generalized parameter χp∈[0,2] presents an exclusive region χp>1 that can only be populated by binaries with two precessing spins. We apply our prescriptions to current LIGO/Virgo events and find that posterior distributions of χp tend to show longer tails at larger values. This appears to be a generic feature, implying that (i) current χp measurement errors might be underestimated, but also that (ii) evidence for spin precession in current data might be stronger than previously inferred. Among the gravitational-wave events released to date, that which shows the most striking behavior is GW190521.

AB - Originally designed for waveform approximants, the effective precession parameter χp is the most commonly used quantity to characterize spin-precession effects in gravitational-wave observations of black-hole binary coalescences. We point out that the current definition of χp retains some, but not all, variations taking place on the precession timescale. We rectify this inconsistency and propose more general definitions that either fully consider or fully average those oscillations. Our generalized parameter χp∈[0,2] presents an exclusive region χp>1 that can only be populated by binaries with two precessing spins. We apply our prescriptions to current LIGO/Virgo events and find that posterior distributions of χp tend to show longer tails at larger values. This appears to be a generic feature, implying that (i) current χp measurement errors might be underestimated, but also that (ii) evidence for spin precession in current data might be stronger than previously inferred. Among the gravitational-wave events released to date, that which shows the most striking behavior is GW190521.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85104238517&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevD.103.064067

DO - 10.1103/PhysRevD.103.064067

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85104238517

SN - 2470-0010

VL - 103

JO - Physical Review D

JF - Physical Review D

IS - 6

M1 - 064067

ER -

A generalized precession parameter xp to interpret gravitational-wave data

Abstract

Bibliographical note

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Projects

Black-hole spins and accretion discs with gravitational waves from space

The supermassive black-hole binary puzzle: putting the pieces together

Cite this

A generalized precession parameter x_p to interpret gravitational-wave data