Highly eccentric black hole merger discovered

Date:
January 20, 2022
Source:
Rochester Institute of Technology
Summary:
Scientists believe they have detected a merger of two black
holes with eccentric orbits. This can help explain how some of
the previous black hole mergers are much heavier than previously
thought possible.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
For the first time, scientists believe they have detected a merger of
two black holes with eccentric orbits. According to a paper published in
Nature Astronomy by researchers from Rochester Institute of Technology's
Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation and the University
of Florida, this can help explain how some of the black hole mergers
detected by LIGO Scientific Collaboration and the Virgo Collaboration
are much heavier than previously thought possible.


========================================================================== Eccentric orbits are a sign that black holes could be repeatedly gobbling
up others during chance encounters in areas densely populated with black
holes such as galactic nuclei. The scientists studied the most massive gravitational wave binary observed to date, GW190521, to determine if
the merger had eccentric orbits.

"The estimated masses of the black holes are more than 70 times the
size of our sun each, placing them well above the estimated maximum
mass predicted currently by stellar evolution theory," said Carlos
Lousto, a professor in the School of Mathematical Sciences and a member
of the CCRG. "This makes an interesting case to study as a second
generation binary black hole system and opens up to new possibilities
of formation scenarios of black holes in dense star clusters." A team
of RIT researchers including Lousto, Research Associate James Healy,
Jacob Lange '20 Ph.D. (astrophysical sciences and technology), Professor
and CCRG Director Manuela Campanelli, Associate Professor Richard O'Shaughnessy, and collaborators from the University of Florida formed
to give a fresh look at the data to see if the black holes had highly
eccentric orbits before they merged. They found the merger is best
explained by a high-eccentricity, precessing model. To achieve this,
the team performed hundreds of new full numerical simulations in local
and national lab supercomputers, taking nearly a year to complete.

"This represents a major advancement in our understanding of how black
holes merge," said Campanelli. "Through our sophisticated supercomputer simulations and the wealth of new data provided by LIGO and Virgo's
rapidly advancing detectors, we are making new discoveries about the
universe at astonishing rates." An extension of this analysis by
the same RIT and UFL team used a possible electromagnetic counterpart
observed by the Zwicky Transient Facility to compute independently the cosmological Hubble constant with GW150521 as an eccentric binary black
hole merger. They found excellent agreement with the expected values
and recently published the work in theAstrophysical Journal.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
Rochester_Institute_of_Technology. Original written by Luke Auburn. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Related Multimedia:
* Artist's_impression_of_binary_black_holes_about_to_collide.

========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. V. Gayathri, J. Healy, J. Lange, B. O'Brien, M. Szczepańczyk,
Imre
Bartos, M. Campanelli, S. Klimenko, C. O. Lousto, R. O'Shaughnessy.

Eccentricity estimate for black hole mergers with numerical
relativity simulations. Nature Astronomy, 2022; DOI:
10.1038/s41550-021-01568-w ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220120165058.htm

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