Date of Award
1-1-2024
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.S. in Physics
First Advisor
Anuradha Gupta
Second Advisor
Nicholas MacDonald
Third Advisor
Gavin Davies
School
University of Mississippi
Relational Format
dissertation/thesis
Abstract
Merging binary black holes exhibit precessional motion that can be classified into three distinct morphologies: Circulating, librating around 0, and librating around π. This information is decoded from the gravitational wave signal. Binary systems can transition between morphologies as they spiral inwards, and spin precession effects are more pronounced near merger. The spin morphology reveals information about the binary black holes’ formation such as through isolated evolution of massive binary stars and their collapse or through dynamic evolution channels such as capture. In this study, we considered inferring the morphology at reference points at which the binary has (approximately) a given orbital velocity using both dimensionless frequency corresponding to 20 Hz and dimensionless time corresponding to t = −100M. Previous studies have instead used a reference point at a given gravitational wave frequency, which corresponds to different orbital velocities depending on the binary’s properties. We simulated loud gravitational wave signals from spinning binary black holes in the LIGO-Virgo network at its plus-era sensitivity and constrained their precessional morphologies. We then compared the results to those from previous work to see if there are better constraints at these new reference points. We find that one can obtain both better and worse constraints at a fixed orbital velocity than at a fixed gravitational wave frequency. This study helps determine a suitable reference point for constraining binary black hole spin morphologies.
Recommended Citation
McCammon, Cody Ayres, "Study of Binary Black Hole Dynamics Using Gravitational Waves" (2024). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 2954.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/2954