Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 6, 2025

The Generation of Higher-order Laguerre-Gauss Optical Beams for High-precision Interferometry
Published on: August 12, 2013
Searching for Asymmetric and Heavily Precessing Binary Black Holes in the Gravitational Wave Data from the LIGO Third
Stefano Schmidt1,2, Sarah Caudill3,4, Jolien D E Creighton5
1Nikhef, Science Park 105, 1098 XG, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Abstract:
Leveraging the features of the GstLAL pipeline, we present the results of a matched filtering search for asymmetric binary black hole systems with heavily misaligned spins in LIGO and Virgo data taken during the third observing run. Our target systems show strong imprints of precession whereas current searches have nonoptimal sensitivity in detecting them. After measuring the sensitivity improvement brought by our search over standard spin-aligned searches, we report the detection of 30 gravitational wave events already discovered in the latest version of the Gravitational Wave Transient Catalog. However, we do not find any additional significant gravitational wave candidates. Our results allow us to place an upper limit of R_{90%}=0.28_{-0.04}^{+0.33} Gpc^{-3} yr^{-1} on the merger rate of a hypothetical subpopulation of asymmetric, heavily precessing signals, not identified by other searches. Since our upper limit is consistent with the latest rate estimates from the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaboration, our findings rule out the existence of a yet-to-be-discovered population of precessing binaries.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Detection of Black Holes
Their closest cousins are neutron stars, which are composed almost entirely of neutrons packed against each other, making them extremely dense. A neutron star has the same mass as the Sun but its diameter is only a few kilometers. Therefore, the escape velocity from their surface is close to the speed of light.
Not until the 1960s, when the first neutron...
Schwarzschild Radius and Event Horizon
The minimum speed required to launch a projectile from the surface of an object to which it is gravitationally bound so that it eventually escapes the object’s gravitational field is called the escape velocity. The escape velocity is independent of the mass of the object. Merging the idea of escape...
Atomic Nuclei: Larmor Precession Frequency
Gravitation Between Spherically Symmetric Masses
IR Spectrum Peak Splitting: Symmetric vs Asymmetric Vibrations
Doppler Effect - II

