A new gravitational wave event reveals a binary black hole merger with total mass 190-265 solar masses, indicating black holes can form via gravitational-wave driven mergers beyond standard stellar channels.
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Tests of General Relativity with GWTC-3
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The ever-increasing number of detections of gravitational waves (GWs) from compact binaries by the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors allows us to perform ever-more sensitive tests of general relativity (GR) in the dynamical and strong-field regime of gravity. We perform a suite of tests of GR using the compact binary signals observed during the second half of the third observing run of those detectors. We restrict our analysis to the 15 confident signals that have false alarm rates $\leq 10^{-3}\, {\rm yr}^{-1}$. In addition to signals consistent with binary black hole (BH) mergers, the new events include GW200115_042309, a signal consistent with a neutron star--BH merger. We find the residual power, after subtracting the best fit waveform from the data for each event, to be consistent with the detector noise. Additionally, we find all the post-Newtonian deformation coefficients to be consistent with the predictions from GR, with an improvement by a factor of ~2 in the -1PN parameter. We also find that the spin-induced quadrupole moments of the binary BH constituents are consistent with those of Kerr BHs in GR. We find no evidence for dispersion of GWs, non-GR modes of polarization, or post-merger echoes in the events that were analyzed. We update the bound on the mass of the graviton, at 90% credibility, to $m_g \leq 2.42 \times 10^{-23} \mathrm{eV}/c^2$. The final mass and final spin as inferred from the pre-merger and post-merger parts of the waveform are consistent with each other. The studies of the properties of the remnant BHs, including deviations of the quasi-normal mode frequencies and damping times, show consistency with the predictions of GR. In addition to considering signals individually, we also combine results from the catalog of GW signals to calculate more precise population constraints. We find no evidence in support of physics beyond GR.
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- abstract The ever-increasing number of detections of gravitational waves (GWs) from compact binaries by the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors allows us to perform ever-more sensitive tests of general relativity (GR) in the dynamical and strong-field regime of gravity. We perform a suite of tests of GR using the compact binary signals observed during the second half of the third observing run of those detectors. We restrict our analysis to the 15 confident signals that have false alarm rates $\leq 10^{-3}\, {\rm yr}^{-1}$. In addition to signals consistent with binary black hole (BH) mergers, t
- background the number of BBH observations by the LIGO-Virgo- KAGRA (LVK) collaboration [2-5] has steadily increased, reaching∼200detections over four observing runs [6]. These observations have provided unprecedented insights ∗ aravichandran@umassd.edu into the properties of black holes and the dynamics of their mergers, which have been crucial for testing general relativity (GR) in the strong-field regime [7] and un- derstanding the astrophysical processes that lead to the formation of BBHs [8]. In most s
- background making GW astronomy an increasingly promising avenue for the study of open problems in fundamental physics and cosmology. A central question that GW astronomy aims to address is theblack hole hypothesis- whether all the astrophysical objects believed to be BHs are indeed well-modeled by the classical BHs of general relativity. To date, all obser- vations of GW events [8], as well as interferometric ob- servations of BH environments using the Event Horizon Telescope [9, 10] are consistent with cl
- background Lopez-Aleman, "Black Hole Spectroscopy: Testing General Relativity through Gravitational Wave Observations," Class. Quant. Grav.21, 787-804 (2004) [arXiv:gr-qc/0309007]. [9] E. Berti, V. Cardoso, and C. M. Will, "On Gravitational-Wave Spectroscopy of Massive Black Holes with the Space Interferometer LISA," Phys. Rev. D73, 064030 (2006) [arXiv:gr-qc/0512160]. [10] R. Abbottet al.(LIGO Scientific Collaboration, Virgo Collaboration, and KAGRA Collaboration), "Tests of General Relativity with GWTC-3
- background 2975 [gr-qc] . [5] O. Trivedi, A. Gurrola, and R. J. Scherrer, (2026), arXiv:2603.04375 [gr-qc] . [6] B. P. Abbott et al. (LIGO Scientific, Virgo), Phys. Rev. Lett.116, 221101 (2016), [Erratum: Phys.Rev.Lett. 121, 129902 (2018)], arXiv:1602.03841 [gr-qc] . [7] R. Abbott et al. (LIGO Scientific, Virgo), Phys. Rev. D103, 122002 (2021), arXiv:2010.14529 [gr-qc] . [8] R. Abbott et al. (LIGO Scientific, VIRGO, KAGRA), (2021), arXiv:2112.06861 [gr-qc] . [9] S. Chandrasekhar, The mathematical theory of
- background of the Fourth LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Observing Run," (2025), 2508.18082. [9] B. P. Abbottet al.(LIGO Scientific, Virgo), Phys. Rev. D100, 104036 (2019), arXiv:1903.04467 [gr-qc]. [10] R. Abbottet al.(LIGO Scientific, Virgo), Phys. Rev. X 11, 021053 (2021), arXiv:2010.14527 [gr-qc]. [11] R. Abbottet al.(LIGO Scientific, VIRGO, KAGRA), Phys. Rev. D112, 084080 (2025), arXiv:2112.06861 [gr- qc]. [12] G. F. Giudice, M. McCullough, and A. Urbano, JCAP 1610, 001 (2016), arXiv:1605.01209 [hep-ph]. [13] V. Car
- dataset arXiv:1602.03838 [gr-qc]. [3] B. P. Abbottet al., Phys. Rev. Lett.116, 061102 (2016), arXiv:1602.03837 [gr-qc]. [4] B. P. Abbottet al., Phys. Rev. D100, 104036 (2019), arXiv:1903.04467 [gr-qc]. [5] R. Abbottet al., Phys. Rev. D103, 122002 (2021), arXiv:2010.14529 [gr-qc]. [6] R. Abbottet al., Phys. Rev. D112, 084080 (2025), arXiv:2112.06861 [gr-qc]. [7] A. G. Abacet al., (2026), arXiv:2603.19019 [gr-qc]. [8] A. G. Abacet al., (2026), arXiv:2603.19020 [gr-qc]. [9] A. G. Abacet al., (2026), arXiv:
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