We describe directed searches for continuous gravitational waves from twelve well localized non-pulsing candidate neutron stars in young supernova remnants using data from Advanced LIGO's second observing run. We assumed that each neutron star is isolated and searched a band of frequencies from 15 to 150\,Hz, consistent with frequencies expected from known young pulsars. After coherently integrating spans of data ranging from 12.0 to 55.9 days using the F-statistic and applying data-based vetoes, we found no evidence of astrophysical signals. We set upper limits on intrinsic gravitational wave amplitude in some cases stronger than 10^{-25}, generally about a factor of two better than upper limits on the same objects from Advanced LIGO's first observing run.
Persistent gravitational waves from rapidly rotating neutron stars, such as those found in some young supernova remnants, may fall in the sensitivity band of the advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (aLIGO). Searches for these signals are computationally challenging, as the frequency and frequency derivative are unknown and evolve rapidly due to the youth of the source. A hidden Markov model (HMM), combined with a maximum-likelihood matched filter, tracks rapid frequency evolution semi-coherently in a computationally efficient manner. We present the results of an HMM se…
Causality and the generalized laws of black hole thermodynamics imply a bound, known as the \textit{Bekenstein--Hod universal bound}, on the information emission rate of a perturbed system. Using a time-domain ringdown analysis, we investigate whether remnant black holes produced by the coalescences observed by Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo obey this bound. We find that the bound is verified by the astrophysical black hole population with $94\%$ probability, providing a first confirmation of the Bekenstein--Hod bound from black hole systems.
The comoving mass density of massive black hole (MBH) remnants from pre-galactic star formation could have been similar in magnitude to the mass-density of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in the present-day universe. We show that the fraction of MBHs that coalesce during the assembly of SMBHs can be extracted from the rate of ring-down gravitational waves that are detectable by Advanced LIGO. Based on the SMBH formation history inferred from the evolution of the quasar luminosity function, we show that an observed event rate of 1 per year will constrain the SMBH mass fraction that was contrib…
X-ray observations of some short gamma-ray bursts indicate that a long-lived neutron star can form as a remnant of a binary neutron star merger. We develop a gravitational-wave detection pipeline for a long-lived binary neutron star merger remnant guided by these counterpart electromagnetic observations. We determine the distance out to which a gravitational-wave signal can be detected with Advanced LIGO at design sensitivity and the Einstein Telescope using this method, guided by X-ray data from GRB140903A as an example. Such gravitational waves can in principle be detected out to $\sim$ 20 M…
Two of the dominant channels to produce merging stellar-mass black-hole binaries are believed to be the isolated evolution of binary stars in the field and dynamical formation in star clusters. The first reported black-hole binary event from the third LIGO/Virgo observing run (GW190412) is unusual in that it has unequal masses, nonzero effective spin, and nonzero primary spin at 90\% confidence interval. We show that this event should be exceedingly rare in the context of both the field and cluster formation scenarios. Interpreting GW190412 as a remnant of a previous black-hole merger provides…
We present a method that assesses the theoretical detection limit of a Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo search for a periodic gravitational wave signal emitted by a neutron star. Inverse probability yields an upper limit estimate for the strength when a signal could not be detected in an observed data set. The proposed method is based on Bayesian model comparison that automatically quantifies Occam s Razor. It limits the complexity of a model by favoring the most parsimonious model that explains the data. By comparing the model with a signal from a pulsar to the null model that assumes solely…
Deep Einstein@Home search for Continuous Gravitational Waves from the Central Compact Objects in the Supernova Remnants Vela Jr. and G347.3-0.5 using LIGO public data
G4.8+6.2 was proposed as a possible kilonova remnant associated with the Korean guest star of AD 1163 in our Milky Way galaxy. Its age is about 860 years according to the historical record. If a neutron star was left in the center of G4.8+6.2, this young neutron star may radiate strong continuous gravitational waves, which could beat the indirect age-based upper limit with current LIGO sensitivity. In this work, we searched such continuous gravitational waves in the frequency band $20-1500 \mathrm{~Hz}$. This search used two days of LIGO O3b data from the Hanford and Livingston detectors. Whil…
Observations of short gamma-ray bursts indicate ongoing energy injection following the prompt emission, with the most likely candidate being the birth of a rapidly rotating, highly magnetised neutron star. We utilise X-ray observations of the burst remnant to constrain properties of the nascent neutron star, including its magnetic field-induced ellipticity and the saturation amplitude of various oscillation modes. Moreover, we derive strict upper limits on the gravitational wave emission from these objects by looking only at the X-ray light curve, showing the burst remnants are unlikely to be …
Using exclusively the 777 full numerical waveforms of the third Binary Black Holes RIT catalog, we reanalyze the ten black hole merger signals reported in LIGO/Virgo's O1/O2 observation runs. We obtain binary parameters, extrinsic parameters, and the remnant properties of these gravitational waves events which are consistent with, but not identical to previously presented results. We have also analyzed three additional events (GW170121, GW170304, GW170727) reported in Venumadhav et al. 2019, and found closely matching parameters. We finally assess the accuracy of our waveforms with convergence…
Neutron star (binary neutron star and neutron star - black hole) mergers are believed to produce short-duration gamma-ray bursts. They are also believed to be the dominant source of gravitational waves to be detected by the advanced LIGO and the dominant source of the heavy r-process elements in the universe. Whether or not these mergers produce short-duration GRBs depends sensitively on the fate of the core of the remnant (whether, and how quickly, it forms a black hole). In this paper, we combine the results of merger calculations and equation of state studies to determine the fate of the co…
In this paper we design a search for continuous gravitational waves from three supernova remnants: Vela Jr., Cassiopeia A (Cas A) and G347.3. These systems might harbor rapidly rotating neutron stars emitting quasi-periodic gravitational radiation detectable by the advanced LIGO detectors. Our search is designed to use the volunteer computing project Einstein@Home for a few months and assumes the sensitivity and duty cycles of the advanced LIGO detectors during their first science run. For all three supernova remnants, the sky-positions of their central compact objects are well known but the f…
We present results of a search for periodic gravitational wave signals with frequency between 20 and 400 Hz, from the neutron star in the supernova remnant G347.3-0.5, using LIGO O2 public data. The search is deployed on the volunteer computing project Einstein@Home, with thousands of participants donating compute cycles to make this endevour possible. We find no significant signal candidate and set the most constraining upper limits to date on the amplitude of gravitational wave signals from the target, corresponding to deformations below $10^{-6}$ in a large part of the band. At the frequenc…
The two neutron star-black hole mergers (GW200105 and GW200115) observed in gravitational waves by advanced LIGO and Virgo, mark the first ever discovery of such binaries in nature. We study these two neutron star-black hole systems through isolated binary evolution, using a grid of population synthesis models. Using both mass and spin observations (chirp mass, effective spin and remnant spin) of the binaries, we probe their different possible formation channels in different metallicity environments. Our models only support LIGO data when assuming the black hole is non spinning. Our results sh…
A strategy is devised for a semi-coherent cross-correlation search for a young neutron star in the supernova remnant SNR 1987A, using science data from the Initial LIGO and/or Virgo detectors. An astrophysical model for the gravitational wave phase is introduced which describes the star's spin down in terms of its magnetic field strength $B$ and ellipticity $ε$, instead of its frequency derivatives. The model accurately tracks the gravitational wave phase from a rapidly decelerating neutron star under the restrictive but computationally unavoidable assumption of constant braking index, an issu…
The favoured progenitor model for short $γ$-ray bursts (SGRBs) is the merger of two neutron stars that triggers an explosion with a burst of collimated $γ$-rays. Following the initial prompt emission, some SGRBs exhibit a plateau phase in their $X$-ray light curves that indicates additional energy injection from a central engine, believed to be a rapidly rotating, highly magnetised neutron star. The collapse of this `protomagnetar' to a black hole is likely to be responsible for a steep decay in $X$-ray flux observed at the end of the plateau. In this letter, we show that these observations ca…
GW170817 showed that neutron star mergers not only emit gravitational waves but also can release electromagnetic signatures in multiple wavelengths. Within the first half of the third observing run of the Advanced LIGO and Virgo detectors, there have been a number of gravitational wave candidates of compact binary systems for which at least one component is potentially a neutron star. In this article, we look at the candidates S190425z, S190426c, S190510g, S190901ap, and S190910h, predicted to have potentially a non-zero remnant mass, in more detail. All these triggers have been followed up wi…
Mergers of compact stellar remnant are prime targets for the LIGO/Virgo gravitational wave detectors. One hopes that the gravitational wave signals from these merger events can be used to study the mass and spin distribution of stellar remnants, and provide information about black hole horizons and the material properties of neutron stars. However, it has been suggested that degeneracies in the way that the star's mass and spin are imprinted in the waveforms may make it impossible to distinguish between black holes and neutron stars. Here we show that the precession of the orbital plane due to…
We describe a search underway for periodic gravitational waves from the central compact object in the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A. The object is the youngest likely neutron star in the Galaxy. Its position is well known, but the object does not pulse in any electromagnetic radiation band and thus presents a challenge in searching the parameter space of frequency and frequency derivatives. We estimate that a fully coherent search can, with a reasonable amount of time on a computing cluster, achieve a sensitivity at which it is theoretically possible (though not likely) to observe a signal ev…
Our understanding of the formation and evolution of binary black holes (BBHs) is significantly impacted by the recent discoveries made by the LIGO/Virgo collaboration. Of utmost importance is the detection of the most massive BBH system, GW190521. Here we investigate what it takes for field massive stellar binaries to account for the formation of such massive BBHs. Whether the high mass end of the BH mass function is populated by remnants of massive stars that either formed at extremely low metallicities and avoid the pair-instability mass gap or increase their birth mass beyond the pair-insta…
Detecting electromagnetic counterparts to LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA gravitational wave events with DECam: Neutron Star Mergers
Carnegie Mellon University（卡内基梅隆大学）；University of Chicago（芝加哥大学）；University of Ferrara（费拉拉大学）；INFN, Sezione di Ferrara（意大利国家核物理研究所费拉拉分部）；INAF, Osservatorio Astronomico d’Abruzzo（意大利国家天体物理研究所阿布鲁佐天文台）；Universität Potsdam（波茨坦大学）；Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute)（马克斯·普朗克引力物理学研究所（爱因斯坦研究所））；Utrecht University（乌得勒支大学）；Nikhef（荷兰国家核物理与粒子物理研究所）；California Institute of Technology（加州理工学院）；University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill（北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校）
Gravitational waves carry energy, angular momentum, and linear momentum. In generic binary black hole mergers, the loss of linear momentum imparts a recoil velocity, or a "kick", to the remnant black hole. We exploit recent advances in gravitational waveform and remnant black hole modeling to extract information about the kick from the gravitational wave signal. Kick measurements such as these are astrophysically valuable, enabling independent constraints on the rate of second-generation mergers. Further, we show that kicks must be factored into future ringdown tests of general relativity with…
Superradiant instabilities can trigger the formation of bosonic clouds around rotating black holes. If the bosonic field growth is sufficiently fast, these clouds could form shortly after a binary black hole merger. Such clouds are continuous sources of gravitational waves whose detection (or lack thereof) can probe the existence of ultralight bosons (such as axion-like particles) and their properties. Motivated by the binary black hole mergers seen by Advanced LIGO so far, we investigate in detail the parameter space that can be probed with continuous gravitational wave signals from ultraligh…
Is GW190521 a gravitational wave echo of wormhole remnant from another universe?
Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, UCAS（杭州高等研究院，中国科学院大学）；Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院理论物理研究所）；University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学）；School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学物理科学学院）；School of Fundamental Physics and Mathematical Sciences, Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, UCAS（杭州高等研究院，中国科学院大学基础物理与数学学院）；International Center for Theoretical Physics Asia-Pacific（亚太理论物理中心）
Ultralight bosons are promising dark matter candidates and can trigger superradiant instabilities of spinning black holes (BHs), resulting in long-lived rotating "bosonic clouds" around the BHs and dissipating their energy through the emission of monochromatic gravitational waves (GWs). We focus on the scalar bosons minimally coupled with both isolated stellar-origin BHs (SBH) and their binary merger remnants, and perform Bayesian data analysis to search for the stochastic GW background from all the unstable modes that can trigger the superradiant instabilities using the data of Advanced LIGO …
Binaries comprised of a neutron star (NS) and a black hole (BH) have so far eluded observations as pulsars and with gravitational waves (GWs). We model the formation and evolution of these NS+BH binaries - including pulsar evolution - using the binary population synthesis code COMPAS. We predict the presence of a total of 50-2000 binaries containing a pulsar and a BH (PSR+BHs) in the Galactic field. We find the population observable by the next generation of radio telescopes, represented by the SKA and MeerKAT, current (LIGO/Virgo) and future (LISA) GW detectors. We conclude that the SKA will …
Van Putten & Della Valle (2018) have reported a possible detection of gravitational-wave 'extended emission' from a neutron star remnant of GW170817. Starting from the time-frequency evolution and total emitted energy of their reported candidate, we show that such an emission is not compatible with the current understanding of neutron stars. We explore the additional required physical assumptions to make a full waveform model, for example, taking the optimistic emission from a spining-down neutron star with fixed quadrupolar deformation, and study whether even an ideal single-template matched-…
We study the development and saturation of the $m=1$ one-armed spiral instability in remnants of binary neutron star mergers by means of high-resolution long-term numerical relativity simulations. Our results suggest that this instability is a generic outcome of neutron stars mergers in astrophysically relevant configurations; including both "stiff" and "soft" nuclear equations of state. We find that, once seeded at merger, the $m=1$ mode saturates within $\sim 10\ \mathrm{ms}$ and persists over secular timescales. Gravitational waves emitted by the $m=1$ instability have a peak frequency arou…
The age of gravitational wave (GW) astronomy has begun, and black hole (BH) mergers detected by LIGO are providing novel constraints on massive star evolution. A major uncertainty in stellar theory is the angular momentum (AM) transport within the star that determines its core rotation rate and the resulting BH's spin. Internal rotation rates of low-mass stars measured from asteroseismology prove that AM transport is efficient, suggesting that massive stellar cores may rotate slower than prior expectations. We investigate AM transport via the magnetic Tayler instability, which can largely expl…
Binary neutron star (BNS) post-merger gravitational-wave emission can occur in the aftermath of a BNS merger -- provided the system avoids prompt collapse to a black hole -- as a quasistable hypermassive remnant experiences quadrupolar oscillations and non-axisymmetric deformations. The post-merger gravitational-wave spectrum possesses a characteristic peak frequency that has been shown to be dependent on the binary chirp mass and the neutron star equation of state (EoS), rendering post-merger gravitational waves a powerful tool for constraining neutron star composition. Unfortunately, the BNS…
Binary neutron star (BNS) mergers are the leading model to explain the phenomenology of short gamma-ray bursts (SGRBs), which are among the most luminous explosions in the universe. Recent observations of long-lasting X-ray afterglows of SGRBs challenge standard paradigms and indicate that in a large fraction of events a long-lived neutron star (NS) may be formed rather than a black hole. Understanding the mechanisms underlying these afterglows is necessary in order to address the open questions concerning the nature of SGRB central engines. However, recent theoretical progress has been hamper…
The first direct observation of a binary neutron star (BNS) merger was a watershed moment in multi-messenger astronomy. However, gravitational waves from GW170817 have only been observed prior to the BNS merger, but electromagnetic observations all follow the merger event. While post-merger gravitational wave signal in general relativity is too faint (given current detector sensitivities), here we present the first tentative detection of post-merger gravitational wave "echoes" from a highly spinning "black hole" remnant. The echoes may be expected in different models of quantum black holes tha…
It is known that a quasinormal mode (QNM) of a remnant black hole dominates a ringdown gravitational wave (GW) in a binary black hole (BBH) merger. To study properties of the QNMs, it is important to determine the time when the QNMs appear in a GW signal as well as to calculate its frequency and amplitude. In this paper, we propose a new method of estimating the starting time of the QNM and calculating the QNM frequency and amplitude of BBH GWs. We apply it to simulated merger waveforms by numerical relativity and the observed data of GW150914. The results show that the obtained QNM frequencie…
As a neutron star (NS) is tidally disrupted by a black hole (BH) companion at the end of a BH-NS binary inspiral, its magnetic fields will be stretched and amplified. If sufficiently strong, these magnetic fields may impact the gravitational waveforms, merger evolution and mass of the remnant disk. Formation of highly-collimated magnetic field lines in the disk+spinning BH remnant may launch relativistic jets, providing the engine for a short-hard GRB. We analyze this scenario through fully general relativistic, magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) BHNS simulations from inspiral through merger and disk…
The ringdown of the gravitational-wave signal from a merger of two black holes has been suggested as a probe of the structure of the remnant compact object, which may be more exotic than a black hole. It has been pointed out that there will be a train of echoes in the late-time ringdown stage for different types of exotic compact objects. In this paper, we present a template-based search methodology using Bayesian statistics to search for echoes of gravitational waves. Evidence for the presence or absence of echoes in gravitational-wave events can be established by performing Bayesian model se…
The LIGO/Virgo Consortium (LVC) released a preliminary announcement of a candidate gravitational wave signal, S190426c, that could have arisen from a black hole-neutron star merger. As the first such candidate system, it's properties such as masses and spin are of great interest. Although LVC policy prohibits disclosure of these properties in preliminary announcements, LVC does release the estimated probabilities that this system is in specific categories, such as binary neutron star, binary black hole and black hole-neutron star. LVC also releases information concerning relative signal streng…
Recent observations indicate that in a large fraction of binary neutron star (BNS) mergers a long-lived neutron star (NS) may be formed rather than a black hole. Unambiguous electromagnetic (EM) signatures of such a scenario would strongly impact our knowledge on how short gamma-ray bursts (SGRBs) and their afterglow radiation are generated. Furthermore, such EM signals would have profound implications for multimessenger astronomy with joint EM and gravitational-wave (GW) observations of BNS mergers, which will soon become reality with the ground-based advanced LIGO/Virgo GW detector network s…
The explosive coalescence of two black holes 1.3 billion light years away has for the very first time allowed us to peer into the extreme gravity region of spacetime surrounding these events. With these maximally compact objects reaching speeds up to 60% the speed of light, collision events such as these create harsh spacetime environments where the fields are strong, non-linear, and highly dynamical -- a place yet un-probed in human history. On September 14, 2015, the iconic chirp signal from such an event was registered simultaneously by both of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Ob…
Gravitational-wave detectors can search for yet-undiscovered ultralight bosons, including those conjectured to solve problems in particle physics, high-energy theory and cosmology. Ground-based instruments could probe boson masses between $10^{-15}$ eV to $10^{-11}$ eV, which are largely inaccessible to other experiments. In this paper, we explore the prospect of searching for the continuous gravitational waves generated by boson clouds around known black holes. We carefully study the predicted waveforms and use the latest-available numerical results to model signals for different black-hole a…
We discuss the potential for detection of gravitational waves from a rapidly spinning neutron star produced by supernova 1987A taking the parameters claimed by Middleditch et al. (2000) at face value. Asssuming that the dominant mechanism for spin down is gravitational waves emitted by a freely precessing neutron star, it is possible to constrain the wobble angle, the effective moment of inertai of the precessing crust and the crust cracking stress limit. Our analysis, suggests that, if the interpretation of the Middleditch data is correct, the compact remnant of SN 1987A may well provide a re…
We present an effective, low-dimensionality frequency-domain template for the gravitational wave signal from the stellar remnants from binary neutron star coalescence. A principal component decomposition of a suite of numerical simulations of binary neutron star mergers is used to construct orthogonal basis functions for the amplitude and phase spectra of the waveforms for a variety of neutron star equations of state and binary mass configurations. We review the phenomenology of late merger / post-merger gravitational wave emission in binary neutron star coalescence and demonstrate how an unde…
Coalescing neutron-star-black-hole (NS-BH) binaries are a promising source of gravitational-wave (GW) signals detectable with large-scale laser interferometers such as Advanced LIGO and Virgo. They are also one of the main short gamma-ray burst (SGRB) progenitor candidates. If the BH tidally disrupts its companion, an SGRB may be ignited when a sufficiently massive accretion disk forms around the remnant BH. Detecting an NS-BH coalescence both in the GW and electromagnetic (EM) spectrum offers a wealth of information about the nature of the source. How much can actually be inferred from a join…
Key targets for gravitational wave (GW) observatories, such as LIGO and the next generation interferometric detector, Advanced LIGO, include core-collapse of massive stars and the final stage of coalescence of compact stellar remnants. The combined GW signal from such events occurring throughout the Universe will produce an astrophysical GW background (AGB), one that is fundamentally different from the GW background by very early Universe processes. One can classify contributions to the AGB for different classes of sources based on the strength of the GW emissions from the individual sources, …
We study the formation of intermediate-mass ratio inspirals (IMRIs) triggered by the interactions between two stellar black holes (BHs) and an intermediate-mass BH (IMBH) inhabiting the centre of a dense star cluster. We exploit $N$-body models varying the IMBH mass, the stellar BH mass spectrum, and the star cluster properties. These simulations are coupled with a semi-analytic procedure to characterise the evolution of the remnant IMBH. The IMRIs formation probability attains values $\sim 5-50\%$, with larger values corresponding to larger IMBH masses. IMRIs map out the stellar BH mass spect…
White dwarf-neutron star binaries generate detectable gravitational radiation. We construct Newtonian equilibrium models of corotational white dwarf-neutron star (WDNS) binaries in circular orbit and find that these models terminate at the Roche limit. At this point the binary will undergo either stable mass transfer (SMT) and evolve on a secular time scale, or unstable mass transfer (UMT), which results in the tidal disruption of the WD. The path a given binary will follow depends primarily on its mass ratio. We analyze the fate of known WDNS binaries and use population synthesis results to e…
Gravitational-wave observation together with a large number of electromagnetic observations shows that the source of the latest gravitational-wave event, GW170817, detected primarily by advanced LIGO, is the merger of a binary neutron star. We attempt to interpret this observational event based on our results of numerical-relativity simulations performed so far paying particular attention to the optical and infra-red observations. We finally reach a conclusion that this event is described consistently by the presence of a long-lived hypermassive or supramassive neutron star as the merger remna…
We review theoretical findings, astrophysical modeling, and current gravitational-wave evidence of hierarchical stellar-mass black-hole mergers. While most of the compact binary mergers detected by LIGO and Virgo are expected to consist of first-generation black holes formed from the collapse of stars, others might instead be of second (or higher) generation, containing the remnants of previous black-hole mergers. Such a subpopulation of hierarchically assembled black holes presents distinctive gravitational-wave signatures, namely higher masses, possibly within the pair-instability mass gap, …
Triaxial neutron stars may be important sources of gravitational radiation for the forthcoming generation of interferometric gravitational wave detectors such as LIGO, VIRGO, and GEO600. We investigate the viscosity triggered bar mode secular instability of rapidly rotating neutron stars by means of a perturbation analysis of numerically constructed ``exact'' general relativistic axisymmetric star models. In the theoretical approach, only the dominant parts of the nonaxisymmetric terms of the 3D-Einstein equations are taken into account. A comparison of our results with previous studies of New…
