Chennai Mathematical Institute

Seminars




Physics Seminar
Date: Friday, 9 August 2024
Time: 11:45 AM
Venue: Seminar Hall
New binary black hole mergers from the public LIGO-Virgo O3 data

Ajit Kumar Mehta
University of California, Santa Barbara.
09-08-24


Abstract

The detections of binary black hole (BBH) mergers have allowed us to probe many fundamental questions related to physics and astronomy, such as the validity of general relativity in the strong-dynamical regime of gravity, measurement of the expansion rate of the universe, inference of merger rates across cosmic time, etc. It is important to adopt analysis techniques that maximize the yield of existing data. In this talk, I will walk through the methods and techniques of our GW search pipeline (i.e., an independent pipeline outside the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration) used to detect GW signals. I will then present some new candidate BBH mergers we discovered in the data from the third observing (O3) run of LIGO-Virgo detectors. These new mergers have interesting astrophysical properties that could enhance our understanding of the astrophysics of compact objects and their binaries.