Gravitational wave peak luminosity model for precessing binary black holes

Understand

When two black holes merge, a tremendous amount of energy is released in the form of gravitational radiation in a short span of time, making such events among the most luminous phenomenon in the universe.

• Models that predict the peak luminosity of black hole mergers are of interest to the gravitational wave community, with potential applications in tests of general relativity.
• We present a surrogate model for the peak luminosity that is directly trained on numerical relativity simulations of precessing binary black holes.
• Using Gaussian process regression, we interpolate the peak luminosity in the 7-dimensional parameter space of precessing binaries with mass ratios $q\leq4$, and spin magnitudes $\chi_1,\chi_2\leq0.8$.