GWTC-1: A Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog of Compact Binary Mergers Observed by LIGO and Virgo during the First and Second Observing Runs

LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

We present the results from three gravitational-wave searches for coalescing compact binaries with component masses above 1 Ma™ during the first and second observing runs of the advanced gravitational-wave detector network. During the first observing run (O1), from September 12, 2015 to January 19, 2016, gravitational waves from three binary black hole mergers were detected. The second observing run (O2), which ran from November 30, 2016 to August 25, 2017, saw the first detection of gravitational waves from a binary neutron star inspiral, in addition to the observation of gravitational waves from a total of seven binary black hole mergers, four of which we report here for the first time: GW170729, GW170809, GW170818, and GW170823. For all significant gravitational-wave events, we provide estimates of the source properties. The detected binary black holes have total masses between 18.6-0.7+3.2 Mâ™ and 84.4-11.1+15.8 Mâ™ and range in distance between 320-110+120 and 2840-1360+1400 Mpc. No neutron star-black hole mergers were detected. In addition to highly significant gravitational-wave events, we also provide a list of marginal event candidates with an estimated false-alarm rate less than 1 per 30 days. From these results over the first two observing runs, which include approximately one gravitational-wave detection per 15 days of data searched, we infer merger rates at the 90% confidence intervals of 110-3840 Gpc-3 y-1 for binary neutron stars and 9.7-101 Gpc-3 y-1 for binary black holes assuming fixed population distributions and determine a neutron star-black hole merger rate 90% upper limit of 610 Gpc-3 y-1.

Original languageEnglish
Article number031040
JournalPhysical Review X
Volume9
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 4 Sept 2019

Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the United States National Science Foundation (NSF) for the construction and operation of the LIGO Laboratory and Advanced LIGO as well as the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) of the United Kingdom, the Max-Planck-Society (MPS), and the State of Niedersachsen/Germany for support of the construction of Advanced LIGO and construction and operation of the GEO600 detector. Additional support for Advanced LIGO was provided by the Australian Research Council. The authors gratefully acknowledge the Italian Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), and the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter supported by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, for the construction and operation of the Virgo detector and the creation and support of the EGO consortium. The authors also gratefully acknowledge research support from these agencies as well as by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research of India, the Department of Science and Technology, India, the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), India, the Ministry of Human Resource Development, India, the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación, the Vicepresidència i Conselleria d’Innovació, Recerca i Turisme and the Conselleria d’Educació i Universitat del Govern de les Illes Balears, the Conselleria d’Educació, Investigació, Cultura i Esport de la Generalitat Valenciana, the National Science Centre of Poland, the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, the Russian Science Foundation, the European Commission, the European Regional Development Funds (ERDF), the Royal Society, the Scottish Funding Council, the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance, the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (OTKA), the Lyon Institute of Origins (LIO), the Paris Île-de-France Region, the National Research, Development and Innovation Office Hungary (NKFIH), the National Research Foundation of Korea, Industry Canada and the Province of Ontario through the Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation, the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council Canada, the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovations, and Communications, the International Center for Theoretical Physics South American Institute for Fundamental Research (ICTP-SAIFR), the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), the Leverhulme Trust, the Research Corporation, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), Taiwan, and the Kavli Foundation. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the NSF, STFC, MPS, INFN, CNRS, and the State of Niedersachsen/Germany for provision of computational resources.

FundersFunder number
Not addedST/N005422/1, ST/N00003X/1, ST/J000019/1, ST/N005406/2, ST/I006269/1, ST/N000633/1, ST/N000072/1, ST/H002006/1, ST/J00166X/1, ST/N005430/1
Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovations, and Communications
Department of Science and Technology
European Regional Development Funds
International Center for Theoretical Physics South American Institute for Fundamental Research
National Research Foundation of Korea, Industry Canada
National Science Centre of Poland
Natural Science and Engineering Research Council Canada
Research Grants Council of Hong Kong
National Science Foundation1707965, 1921006, 1806824, 1912632, 1707946, 1707835, 1726215, 1811228, 1806165, 1806990
Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences
Kavli Foundation
Canadian Institute for Advanced Research
Centre Eau Terre Environnement, Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique
Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation
Science and Technology Facilities CouncilST/K000845/1
Leverhulme Trust
Royal Society
Scottish Funding Council
Scottish Universities Physics Alliance
European Commission
Australian Research Council
Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India
Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung
National Natural Science Foundation of China
Science and Engineering Research Board
Russian Foundation for Basic Research
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
Generalitat Valenciana
Hungarian Scientific Research Fund
Instituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare
Ministry of Human Resource Development
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología
Russian Science Foundation
Universitat de les Illes Balears
Nemzeti Kutatási Fejlesztési és Innovációs Hivatal
Agencia Estatal de Investigación
Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare
National Research, Development and Innovation Office

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