Observation of gravitational waves from a binary black hole merger

Abstract

On September 14, 2015 at 09:50:45 UTC the two detectors of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory simultaneously observed a transient gravitational-wave signal. The signal sweeps upwards in frequency from 35 to 250 Hz with a peak gravitational-wave strain of 1.0×10^{-21}. It matches the waveform predicted by general relativity for the inspiral and merger of a pair of black holes and the ringdown of the resulting single black hole. The signal was observed with a matched-filter signal-to-noise ratio of 24 and a false alarm rate estimated to be less than 1 event per 203 000 years, equivalent to a significance greater than 5.1σ. The source lies at a luminosity distance of 410_{-180}^{+160} Mpc corresponding to a redshift z=0.09_{-0.04}^{+0.03}. In the source frame, the initial black hole masses are 36_{-4}^{+5}M_{⊙} and 29_{-4}^{+4}M_{⊙}, and the final black hole mass is 62_{-4}^{+4}M_{⊙}, with 3.0_{-0.5}^{+0.5}M_{⊙}c^{2} radiated in gravitational waves. All uncertainties define 90% credible intervals. These observations demonstrate the existence of binary stellar-mass black hole systems. This is the first direct detection of gravitational waves and the first observation of a binary black hole merger.