A follow-up on intermediate-mass black hole candidates in the second LIGO–Virgo observing run with the Bayes Coherence Ratio. Issue 4 (29th August 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Vajpeyi, Avi; Smith, Rory; Thrane, Eric; Ashton, Gregory; Alford, Thomas; Garza, Sierra; Isi, Maximiliano; Kanner, Jonah; Massinger, T J; Xiao, Liting
• Is Part Of: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Volume 516:Issue 4(2022)
• Page Start: 5309
• Page End: 5317
• Publication Date: 2022-08-29
• Subjects: gravitational waves -- methods: data analysis -- methods: statistical -- black hole mergers; Astronomy -- Periodicals; Periodicals; 520.5
• DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stac2332
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0035-8711

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The detection of an intermediate-mass black hole population (10 2 –10 6 M⊙ ) will provide clues to their formation environments (e.g. discs of active galactic nuclei, globular clusters) and illuminate a potential pathway to produce supermassive black holes. Ground-based gravitational-wave detectors are sensitive to mergers that can form intermediate-mass black holes weighing up to ∼450 M⊙ . However, ground-based detector data contain numerous incoherent short duration noise transients that can mimic the gravitational-wave signals from merging intermediate-mass black holes, limiting the sensitivity of searches. Here, we follow-up on binary black hole merger candidates using a ranking statistic that measures the coherence or incoherence of triggers in multiple-detector data. We use this statistic to rank candidate events, initially identified by all-sky search pipelines, with lab-frame total masses ≳ 55 M⊙ using data from LIGO's second observing run. Our analysis does not yield evidence for new intermediate-mass black holes. However, we find support for eight stellar-mass binary black holes not reported in the first LIGO–Virgo gravitational wave transient catalogue GWTC-1, seven of which have been previously reported by other catalogues.