Revisiting the cosmic string origin of GW190521
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arXiv
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2023
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| _version_ | 1866914789647712256 |
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| author | Aurrekoetxea, Josu C. Hoy, Charlie Hannam, Mark |
| author_facet | Aurrekoetxea, Josu C. Hoy, Charlie Hannam, Mark |
| contents | For the first time we analyse gravitational-wave strain data using waveforms constructed from strong gravity simulations of cosmic string loops collapsing to Schwarzschild black holes; a previously unconsidered source. Since the expected signal is dominated by a black-hole ringdown, it can mimic the observed gravitational waves from high-mass binary black hole mergers. To illustrate this, we consider GW190521, a short duration gravitational-wave event observed in the third LIGO--Virgo--KAGRA observing run. We show that describing this event as a collapsing cosmic string loop is favoured over previous cosmic string analyses by an approximate log Bayes factor of $22$. The binary black hole hypothesis is still preferred, mostly because the cosmic string remnant is non-spinning. It remains an open question whether a spinning remnant could form from loops with angular momentum, but if possible, it would likely bring into contention the binary black hole preference. Finally, we suggest that searches for ringdown-only waveforms would be a viable approach for identifying collapsing cosmic string events and estimating their event rate. This work opens up an important new direction for the cosmic-string and gravitational-wave communities. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2312_03860 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Revisiting the cosmic string origin of GW190521 Aurrekoetxea, Josu C. Hoy, Charlie Hannam, Mark General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena High Energy Physics - Phenomenology For the first time we analyse gravitational-wave strain data using waveforms constructed from strong gravity simulations of cosmic string loops collapsing to Schwarzschild black holes; a previously unconsidered source. Since the expected signal is dominated by a black-hole ringdown, it can mimic the observed gravitational waves from high-mass binary black hole mergers. To illustrate this, we consider GW190521, a short duration gravitational-wave event observed in the third LIGO--Virgo--KAGRA observing run. We show that describing this event as a collapsing cosmic string loop is favoured over previous cosmic string analyses by an approximate log Bayes factor of $22$. The binary black hole hypothesis is still preferred, mostly because the cosmic string remnant is non-spinning. It remains an open question whether a spinning remnant could form from loops with angular momentum, but if possible, it would likely bring into contention the binary black hole preference. Finally, we suggest that searches for ringdown-only waveforms would be a viable approach for identifying collapsing cosmic string events and estimating their event rate. This work opens up an important new direction for the cosmic-string and gravitational-wave communities. |
| title | Revisiting the cosmic string origin of GW190521 |
| topic | General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena High Energy Physics - Phenomenology |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.03860 |