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Articles by Eric Thrane
Evidence for Three Subpopulations of Merging Binary Black Holes at Different Primary Masses
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Evidence for Three Subpopulations of Merging Binary Black Holes at Different Primary Masses
With the release of the fourth LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA gravitational-wave catalog (GWTC-4), we are starting to gain a detailed view of the population of merging binary black holes. The formation channels of these black holes is not clearly understood, but different formation mechanisms may lead to subpopulations with different properties visible in gravitational-wave data.
A ‘forbidden gap’: What missing black holes reveal about exploding stars
When an international team of scientists, led by Monash University, working with the global network of gravitational-wave detectors measuring tiny ripples in spacetime, recently examined the masses of merging black holes, they noticed something strange – a gap where black holes should exist, but don’t.
Evidence of the pair-instability gap from black-hole masses
Abstract Stellar theory predicts a forbidden range of black-hole masses between approximately 50 M⊙ and 130 M⊙ owing to pair-instability supernovae1,2,3,4,5,6,7, but evidence for such a gap in the mass distribution from gravitational-wave astronomy has proved elusive. Early hints of a cut-off in black-hole masses at about 45 M⊙ disappeared with the subsequent discovery of more massive binary black holes8,9.
Determination of the birth-mass function of neutron stars from observations - Nature Astronomy
Abstract The birth-mass function of neutron stars encodes rich information about supernova explosions, double-star evolution and the properties of matter under extreme conditions. To date, it has remained poorly constrained by observations, however.
Precision constraints on the neutron star equation of state with third-generation gravitational-wave observatories
It is currently unknown how matter behaves at the extreme densities found within the cores of neutron stars. Gravitational waves from binary neutron star mergers encode rich information about the stars’ deformability, allowing the equation of state—and hence nuclear physics—to be inferred. Planned third-generation gravitational-wave observatories, having vastly improved sensitivity, are expected to provide tight constraints on the neutron star equation of state.
Toward a self-consistent framework for measuring black hole ringdowns
The ringdown portion of a binary black hole merger consists of a sum of modes, each containing an infinite number of tones that are exponentially damped sinusoids. In principle, these can be measured as gravitational-waves with observatories like LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA, however in practice it is unclear how many tones can be meaningfully resolved.
Model exploration in gravitational-wave astronomy with the maximum population likelihood
Abstract Hierarchical Bayesian inference is an essential tool for studying the population properties of compact binaries with gravitational waves. The basic premise is to infer the unknown prior distribution of binary black hole and/or neutron star parameters such component masses, spin vectors, and redshift. These distributions shed light on the fate of massive stars, how and where binaries are assembled, and the evolution of the Universe over cosmic time.
Four Eccentric Mergers Increase the Evidence that LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA's Binary Black Holes Form Dynamically
The LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA (LVK) Collaboration has so far reported 90 gravitational-wave signals of probable (≥50% credible) astrophysical origin (Abbott et al. 2019; Abbott et al. 2021a, 2021b, 2021c), all consistent with coming to mergers of a compact binary: a binary black hole (BBH), binary neutron star (BNS), or neutron star–black hole binary (NSBH). The provenance of these compact-object binary mergers is an open question in gravitational-wave astrophysics.
We've detected new gravitational waves, we just don't know where they come from (yet)
The hunt for gravitational waves is back on with the announcement overnight of the detection of signals from what’s thought to be the merger of two neutron stars, the incredibly dense remains of a collapsed star. The signals were actually picked up on Thursday April 25 – ANZAC Day here in Australia – from a binary merger named S190425z), only the second ever neutron star merger to be observed.
Matter falling into a black hole at 30 percent of the speed of light
A UK team of astronomers report the first detection of matter falling into a black hole at 30% of the speed of light, located in the centre of the billion-light year distant galaxy PG211+143. The team, led by Professor Ken Pounds of the University of Leicester, used data from the European Space Agency’s X-ray observatory XMM-Newton to observe the black hole. Their results appear in a new paper in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Swift's telescope reveals birth, deaths and collisions of stars through 1 million snapshots in UV
Imagine if the color camera had never been invented and all our images were in black and white. The world would still look beautiful, but incomplete. For thousands of years, that was how humans saw the universe. On Earth, we can only see part of the light that stars emit. Much of what we can’t see – in the infrared, the ultraviolet, the X-ray and the gamma ray wavelengths – is blocked by the Earth’s atmosphere. For the most part, this is a good thing.
Ultrahot planets have starlike atmospheres
Recent observations by NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes of ultrahot Jupiter-like planets have perplexed theorists. The spectra of these planets have suggested they have exotic – and improbable – compositions.
Elliptical elegance in glittering host of galaxies
Whereas ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) can observe very faint astronomical objects in great detail, when astronomers want to understand how the huge variety of galaxies come into being they must turn to a different sort of telescope with a much bigger field of view. The VLT Survey Telescope (VST) is such a telescope. It was designed to explore vast swaths of the pristine Chilean night skies, offering astronomers detailed astronomical surveys of the southern hemisphere.
Engineering bacteria to exhibit stochastic Turing patterns
First in-vivo proof of principle that patterns can be stabilized by noise How did the zebra get its stripes, or the leopard its spots? Humankind has been trying to answer such questions since our earliest recorded days, and they resonate throughout the extant mythologies and folklores of an earlier world.
An award with real gravity: How gravitational waves attracted a Nobel Prize
The 2017 for physics, awarded overnight in Sweden by the of Sciences, began with a discussion 42 years ago between two scientists in a hotel room in Washington DC. Kip Thorne, a theoretical physicist from Caltech, and Rainer (Rai) Weiss, an experimentalist from MIT, debated what would have seemed to most physicists like a far-fetched, borderline crazy idea: the detection of ripples in the fabric of spacetime called gravitational waves. But the two young men were serious.
An award with real gravity: how gravitational waves attracted a Nobel Prize
The 2017 Nobel prize for physics, awarded overnight in Sweden by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, began with a discussion 42 years ago between two scientists in a hotel room in Washington DC. Kip Thorne, a theoretical physicist from Caltech, and Rainer (Rai) Weiss, an experimentalist from MIT, debated what would have seemed to most physicists like a far-fetched, borderline crazy idea: the detection of ripples in the fabric of spacetime called gravitational waves.
A new discovery of gravitational waves has black holes in a spin - Monash University
A simulation of the latest binary black hole merger detected by LIGO. Blue indicates weak fields and yellow indicates strong fields.
A new discovery of gravitational waves has black holes in a spin
Within just a couple of months of turning back on for its second major science run, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) made a third detection of gravitational waves, ripples in space and time, demonstrating that a new window in astronomy has been firmly opened. As was the case with the first two detections, the waves were generated when two massive black holes merged to form a larger one.
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