Document Type
Article
Publication Date
9-2-2020
Abstract
On May 21, 2019 at 03:02:29 UTC Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo observed a short duration gravitational-wave signal, GW190521, with a three-detector network signal-to-noise ratio of 14.7, and an estimated false-alarm rate of 1 in 4900 yr using a search sensitive to generic transients. If GW190521 is from a quasicircular binary inspiral, then the detected signal is consistent with the merger of two black holes with masses of 85+21−14 M⊙ and 66+17−18 M⊙ (90% credible intervals). We infer that the primary black hole mass lies within the gap produced by (pulsational) pair-instability supernova processes, with only a 0.32% probability of being below 65 M⊙. We calculate the mass of the remnant to be 142+28−16 M⊙, which can be considered an intermediate mass black hole (IMBH). The luminosity distance of the source is 5.3+2.4−2.6 Gpc, corresponding to a redshift of 0.82+0.28−0.34. The inferred rate of mergers similar to GW190521 is 0.13+0.30−0.11 Gpc−3 yr−1.
Recommended Citation
Abbott, R., et al. (2020). GW190521: A Binary Black Hole Merger with a Total Mass of 150M⊙. Physical Review Letters, 125(10), 101102. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.101102
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Publication Title
Physical Review Letters
DOI
10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.101102