Publications by authors named "Slaven-Blair T"

Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates compact binary coalescences with at least one component mass between 0.2 and 1.0 solar masses using data from Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors over six months in 2019, but they found no significant gravitational wave candidates.
  • The analysis leads to an upper limit on the merger rate of subsolar binaries ranging from 220 to 24,200 Gpc⁻³ yr⁻¹, based on the detected signals’ false alarm rate.
  • The researchers use these limits to set new constraints on two models for subsolar-mass compact objects: primordial black holes (suggesting they make up less than 6% of dark matter) and
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

We search for gravitational-wave signals produced by cosmic strings in the Advanced LIGO and Virgo full O3 dataset. Search results are presented for gravitational waves produced by cosmic string loop features such as cusps, kinks, and, for the first time, kink-kink collisions. A template-based search for short-duration transient signals does not yield a detection.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

We present our current best estimate of the plausible observing scenarios for the Advanced LIGO, Advanced Virgo and KAGRA gravitational-wave detectors over the next several years, with the intention of providing information to facilitate planning for multi-messenger astronomy with gravitational waves. We estimate the sensitivity of the network to transient gravitational-wave signals for the third (O3), fourth (O4) and fifth observing (O5) runs, including the planned upgrades of the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. We study the capability of the network to determine the sky location of the source for gravitational-wave signals from the inspiral of binary systems of compact objects, that is binary neutron star, neutron star-black hole, and binary black hole systems.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • On May 21, 2019, Advanced LIGO and Virgo detected a significant gravitational-wave signal known as GW190521, indicating a high probability event with a low chance of false alarms.
  • The signal suggests it resulted from the merger of two black holes, one around 85 solar masses and the other about 66 solar masses, with the primary black hole likely being an intermediate mass black hole.
  • The source of the merger is estimated to be about 5.3 billion light-years away, and the rate of similar black hole mergers is estimated to be about 0.13 mergers per billion cubic parsecs per year.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates the existence of subsolar mass ultracompact objects by analyzing data from Advanced LIGO's second observing run and includes the impact of spin on gravitational waves.
  • No suitable gravitational-wave candidates were found for binaries with at least one component between 0.2 and 1.0 solar masses, leading to significant constraints on their binary merger rates.
  • The findings suggest that such ultracompact objects likely do not form through conventional stellar evolution, and they outline how these constraints on merger rates can be applied to different black hole population models that predict subsolar mass binaries.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The recent discovery by Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo of a gravitational wave signal from a binary neutron star inspiral has enabled tests of general relativity (GR) with this new type of source. This source, for the first time, permits tests of strong-field dynamics of compact binaries in the presence of matter. In this Letter, we place constraints on the dipole radiation and possible deviations from GR in the post-Newtonian coefficients that govern the inspiral regime.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

We analyze the impact of a proposed tidal instability coupling p modes and g modes within neutron stars on GW170817. This nonresonant instability transfers energy from the orbit of the binary to internal modes of the stars, accelerating the gravitational-wave driven inspiral. We model the impact of this instability on the phasing of the gravitational wave signal using three parameters per star: an overall amplitude, a saturation frequency, and a spectral index.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

We present the first Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo search for ultracompact binary systems with component masses between 0.2  M_{⊙}-1.0  M_{⊙} using data taken between September 12, 2015 and January 19, 2016.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

On 17 August 2017, the LIGO and Virgo observatories made the first direct detection of gravitational waves from the coalescence of a neutron star binary system. The detection of this gravitational-wave signal, GW170817, offers a novel opportunity to directly probe the properties of matter at the extreme conditions found in the interior of these stars. The initial, minimal-assumption analysis of the LIGO and Virgo data placed constraints on the tidal effects of the coalescing bodies, which were then translated to constraints on neutron star radii.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF