Search for gravitational waves from the coalescence of sub-solar mass binaries in the first half of Advanced LIGO and Virgo’s third observing run

Alexander H. Nitz^{1, 2}, Yi-Fan Wang^{1, 2}

_{1. Albert-Einstein-Institut, Max-Planck-Institut for Gravitationsphysik, D-30167 Hannover, Germany 2. Leibniz Universitat Hannover, D-30167 Hannover, Germany}

Introduction

We present a search for gravitational waves from the coalescence of sub-solar mass black hole binaries using data from the first half of Advanced LIGO and Virgo’s third observing run. The observation of a sub-solar mass black hole merger is a clear indication of primordial origin; primordial black holes may contribute to the dark matter distribution. We search for black hole mergers where the primary mass is 0.1−7M_sun and the secondary mass is 0.1−1M_sun. A variety of models predict the production and coalescence of binaries containing primordial black holes; some involve dynamical assembly which may allow for residual eccentricity to be observed. For component masses > 0.5M_sun, we also search for sources in eccentric orbits, measured at a reference gravitational-wave frequency of 10 Hz, up to e_10 ∼ 0.3. We find no convincing candidates and place new upper limits on the rate of primordial black hole mergers. The merger rate of 0.5-0.5 (1.0-1.0) M_sun sources is < 7100 (1200) Gpc−3 yr−1. Our limits are ∼ 3 − 4× more constraining than prior analyses.

A preprint version of the paper is available on arxiv. This release contains configuration files of the search.

The rate limits are contained in two text files in the 'upper_limits' folder. These contain the limits as a function of chirpm mass for the merger rate for non-eccentric sources as well as for a populuation where the eccentricity ranges from 0 to 0.3. The equivelant VT of the search for these two cases is also given in separate files as a function of chirp mass. The VT is comparable for mass ratios within our searched region at fixed chirp mass, so can be extended in this way to a full distribution over m1/m2.

License and Citation

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

We encourage use of these data in derivative works. If you use the material provided here, please cite the paper using the reference:

@article{Nitz:2021vqh,
    author = "Nitz, Alexander H. and Wang, Yi-Fan",
    title = "{Search for Gravitational Waves from the Coalescence of Subsolar-Mass Binaries in the First Half of Advanced LIGO and Virgo\textquoteright{}s Third Observing Run}",
    eprint = "2106.08979",
    archivePrefix = "arXiv",
    primaryClass = "astro-ph.HE",
    doi = "10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.151101",
    journal = "Phys. Rev. Lett.",
    volume = "127",
    number = "15",
    pages = "151101",
    year = "2021"
}