Nonlinearities in Black Hole Ringdowns.

The gravitational wave strain emitted by a perturbed black hole (BH) ringing down is typically modeled analytically using first-order BH perturbation theory. In this Letter, we show that second-order effects are necessary for modeling ringdowns from BH merger simulations. Focusing on the strain's (ℓ,m)=(4,4) angular harmonic, we show the presence of a quadratic effect across a range of binary BH mass ratios that agrees with theoretical expectations.

Testing the Black-Hole Area Law with GW150914.

We present observational confirmation of Hawking's black-hole area theorem based on data from GW150914, finding agreement with the prediction with 97% (95%) probability when we model the ringdown including (excluding) overtones of the quadrupolar mode. We obtain this result from a new time-domain analysis of the pre- and postmerger data. We also confirm that the inspiral and ringdown portions of the signal are consistent with the same remnant mass and spin, in agreement with general relativity.

Testing the No-Hair Theorem with GW150914.

We analyze gravitational-wave data from the first LIGO detection of a binary black-hole merger (GW150914) in search of the ringdown of the remnant black hole. Using observations beginning at the peak of the signal, we find evidence of the fundamental quasinormal mode and at least one overtone, both associated with the dominant angular mode (ℓ=m=2), with 3.6σ confidence.

Catalog of 174 binary black hole simulations for gravitational wave astronomy.

This Letter presents a publicly available catalog of 174 numerical binary black hole simulations following up to 35 orbits. The catalog includes 91 precessing binaries, mass ratios up to 8∶1, orbital eccentricities from a few percent to 10(-5), black hole spins up to 98% of the theoretical maximum, and radiated energies up to 11.1% of the initial mass.