The basic physics of the binary black hole merger GW150914

Understand

The first direct gravitational-wave detection was made by the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory on September 14, 2015.

• The GW150914 signal was strong enough to be apparent, without using any waveform model, in the filtered detector strain data.
• Here, features of the signal visible in the data are analyzed using concepts from Newtonian physics and general relativity, accessible to anyone with a general physics background.
• The simple analysis presented here is consistent with the fully general-relativistic analyses published elsewhere,in showing that the signal was produced by the inspiral and subsequent merger of two black holes.