GW170814: A Three-Detector Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Coalescence
Source
Physical Review Letters
ISSN
00319007
Date Issued
2017-10-06
Author(s)
Abbott, B. P.
Abbott, R.
Abbott, T. D.
Acernese, F.
Ackley, K.
Adams, C.
Adams, T.
Addesso, P.
Adhikari, R. X.
Adya, V. B.
Affeldt, C.
Afrough, M.
Agarwal, B.
Agathos, M.
Agatsuma, K.
Aggarwal, N.
Aguiar, O. D.
Aiello, L.
Ain, A.
Ajith, P.
Allen, B.
Allen, G.
Allocca, A.
Altin, P. A.
Amato, A.
Ananyeva, A.
Anderson, S. B.
Anderson, W. G.
Angelova, S. V.
Antier, S.
Appert, S.
Arai, K.
Araya, M. C.
Areeda, J. S.
Arnaud, N.
Arun, K. G.
Ascenzi, S.
Ashton, G.
Ast, M.
Aston, S. M.
Astone, P.
Atallah, D. V.
Aufmuth, P.
Aulbert, C.
Aultoneal, K.
Austin, C.
Avila-Alvarez, A.
Babak, S.
Bacon, P.
Bader, M. K.M.
Bae, S.
Baker, P. T.
Baldaccini, F.
Ballardin, G.
Ballmer, S. W.
Banagiri, S.
Barayoga, J. C.
Barclay, S. E.
Barish, B. C.
Barker, D.
Barkett, K.
Barone, F.
Barr, B.
Barsotti, L.
Barsuglia, M.
Barta, D.
Barthelmy, S. D.
Bartlett, J.
Bartos, I.
Bassiri, R.
Basti, A.
Batch, J. C.
Bawaj, M.
Bayley, J. C.
Bazzan, M.
Bécsy, B.
Beer, C.
Bejger, M.
Belahcene, I.
Bell, A. S.
Berger, B. K.
Bergmann, G.
Bero, J. J.
Berry, C. P.L.
Bersanetti, D.
Bertolini, A.
Betzwieser, J.
Bhagwat, S.
Bhandare, R.
Bilenko, I. A.
Billingsley, G.
Billman, C. R.
Birch, J.
Birney, R.
Birnholtz, O.
Biscans, S.
Biscoveanu, S.
Bisht, A.
Bitossi, M.
Biwer, C.
Abstract
On August 14, 2017 at 10 30:43 UTC, the Advanced Virgo detector and the two Advanced LIGO detectors coherently observed a transient gravitational-wave signal produced by the coalescence of two stellar mass black holes, with a false-alarm rate of 1 in 27 000 years. The signal was observed with a three-detector network matched-filter signal-to-noise ratio of 18. The inferred masses of the initial black holes are 30.5-3.0+5.7M and 25.3-4.2+2.8M (at the 90% credible level). The luminosity distance of the source is 540-210+130 Mpc, corresponding to a redshift of z=0.11-0.04+0.03. A network of three detectors improves the sky localization of the source, reducing the area of the 90% credible region from 1160 deg2 using only the two LIGO detectors to 60 deg2 using all three detectors. For the first time, we can test the nature of gravitational-wave polarizations from the antenna response of the LIGO-Virgo network, thus enabling a new class of phenomenological tests of gravity.