Search for Gravitational Waves from High-Mass-Ratio Compact-Binary Mergers of Stellar Mass and Subsolar Mass Black Holes.

Phys Rev Lett

Max-Planck-Institut für Gravitationsphysik (Albert-Einstein-Institut), D-30167 Hannover, Germany and Leibniz Universität Hannover, D-30167 Hannover, Germany.

Published: January 2021

We present the first search for gravitational waves from the coalescence of stellar mass and subsolar mass black holes with masses between 20-100  M_{⊙} and 0.01-1  M_{⊙}(10-10^{3}  M_{J}), respectively. The observation of a single subsolar mass black hole would establish the existence of primordial black holes and a possible component of dark matter. We search the ∼164 day of public LIGO data from 2015-2017 when LIGO-Hanford and LIGO-Livingston were simultaneously observing. We find no significant candidate gravitational-wave signals. Using this nondetection, we place a 90% upper limit on the rate of 30-0.01  M_{⊙} and 30-0.1  M_{⊙} mergers at <1.2×10^{6} and <1.6×10^{4}  Gpc^{-3}  yr^{-1}, respectively. If we consider binary formation through direct gravitational-wave braking, this kind of merger would be exceedingly rare if only the lighter black hole were primordial in origin (<10^{-4}  Gpc^{-3}  yr^{-1}). If both black holes are primordial in origin, we constrain the contribution of 1(0.1)M_{⊙} black holes to dark matter to <0.3(3)%.

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.021103DOI Listing

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Article Synopsis
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  • 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
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