Black-hole Spectroscopy by Making Full Use of Gravitational-Wave Modeling

Understand

The Kerr nature of a compact-object-coalescence remnant can be unveiled by observing multiple quasi-normal modes (QNMs) in the post-merger signal.

• Current methods to achieve this goal rely on matching the data with a superposition of exponentially damped sinusoids with amplitudes fitted to numerical-relativity (NR) simulations of binary black-hole (BBH) mergers.
• These models presume the ability to correctly estimate the time at which the gravitational-wave (GW) signal starts to be dominated by the QNMs of a perturbed BH.
• Here we show that this difficulty can be overcome by using multipolar inspiral-merger-ringdown waveforms, calibrated to NR simulations, as already developed within the effective-one-body formalism (EOBNR).