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Updated: Oct 28, 2025

The Generation of Higher-order Laguerre-Gauss Optical Beams for High-precision Interferometry
Published on: August 12, 2013
Testing the Black-Hole Area Law with GW150914
Maximiliano Isi1, Will M Farr2,3, Matthew Giesler4
1LIGO Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
Abstract:
We present observational confirmation of Hawking's black-hole area theorem based on data from GW150914, finding agreement with the prediction with 97% (95%) probability when we model the ringdown including (excluding) overtones of the quadrupolar mode. We obtain this result from a new time-domain analysis of the pre- and postmerger data. We also confirm that the inspiral and ringdown portions of the signal are consistent with the same remnant mass and spin, in agreement with general relativity.
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