Constraining black-hole binary spin precession and nutation with sequential prior conditioning

Understand

We investigate the detectability of sub-dominant spin effects in merging black-hole binaries using current gravitational-wave data.

• Using a phenomenological model that separates the spin dynamics into precession (azimuthal motion) and nutation (polar motion), we present constraints on the resulting amplitudes and frequencies.
• We also explore current constraints on the spin morphologies, indicating if binaries are trapped near spin-orbit resonances.
• We dissect such weak effects from the signals using a sequential prior conditioning approach, where parameters are progressively re-sampled from their posterior distribution.