Gravitational Waves from Binary Black Hole Mergers inside Stars

Joseph M. Fedrow, Christian D. Ott, Ulrich Sperhake, Jonathan Blackman, Roland Haas, Christian Reisswig, and Antonio De Felice
Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 171103 – Published 24 October 2017
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Abstract

We present results from a controlled numerical experiment investigating the effect of stellar density gas on the coalescence of binary black holes (BBHs) and the resulting gravitational waves (GWs). This investigation is motivated by the proposed stellar core fragmentation scenario for BBH formation and the associated possibility of an electromagnetic counterpart to a BBH GW event. We employ full numerical relativity coupled with general-relativistic hydrodynamics and set up a 30+30M BBH (motivated by GW150914) inside gas with realistic stellar densities. Our results show that at densities ρ106107gcm3 dynamical friction between the BHs and gas changes the coalescence dynamics and the GW signal in an unmistakable way. We show that for GW150914, LIGO observations appear to rule out BBH coalescence inside stellar gas of ρ107gcm3. Typical densities in the collapsing cores of massive stars are in excess of this density. This excludes the fragmentation scenario for the formation of GW150914.

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  • Received 25 April 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.171103

© 2017 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Gravitation, Cosmology & Astrophysics

Authors & Affiliations

Joseph M. Fedrow1,*, Christian D. Ott1,2, Ulrich Sperhake3,2, Jonathan Blackman2, Roland Haas4, Christian Reisswig2, and Antonio De Felice1

  • 1Center for Gravitational Physics and International Research Unit of Advanced Future Studies, Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics, Kyoto University, 606-8317 Kyoto, Japan
  • 2TAPIR, Walter Burke Institute for Theoretical Physics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125-0001, USA
  • 3Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, Centre for Mathematical Sciences, University of Cambridge, CB3 0WA Cambridge, United Kingdom
  • 4National Center for Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1205 W Clark St., Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA

  • *jfedrow@yukawa.kyoto-u.ac.jp

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Issue

Vol. 119, Iss. 17 — 27 October 2017

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