Black-hole ringdown with templates capturing spin precession: a critical re-analysis of GW190521

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Anselmo, Chiara, Pacilio, Costantino, Gerosa, Davide
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Anselmo, Chiara
Pacilio, Costantino
Gerosa, Davide
author_facet Anselmo, Chiara
Pacilio, Costantino
Gerosa, Davide
contents The ringdown phase of a binary black-hole merger provides a clean probe of strong-field gravity, as it can be modeled with minimal assumptions. The quasi-normal-mode frequencies encode the mass and spin of the Kerr black-hole remnant, while the mode excitation depends on the progenitor binary. In this paper, we implement a recently developed amplitude model that captures spin precession in a simulation-based inference pipeline that specifically targets ringdown signals. We present a critical re-analysis of GW190521 -- a short-duration, merger-dominated event with conflicting interpretations. Spin-aligned and precessing analyses at two ringdown start times show that precession induces modest but systematic shifts in inferred parameters and subdominant mode amplitudes, although such ringdown-only analyses provide no strong evidence for precession. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of physics-informed precessing ringdown modelling, paving the way for the identification of spin precession in gravitational-wave events using solely their ringdown stages, where waveform systematics are expected to be substantially less prominent.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_05193
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Black-hole ringdown with templates capturing spin precession: a critical re-analysis of GW190521
Anselmo, Chiara
Pacilio, Costantino
Gerosa, Davide
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
The ringdown phase of a binary black-hole merger provides a clean probe of strong-field gravity, as it can be modeled with minimal assumptions. The quasi-normal-mode frequencies encode the mass and spin of the Kerr black-hole remnant, while the mode excitation depends on the progenitor binary. In this paper, we implement a recently developed amplitude model that captures spin precession in a simulation-based inference pipeline that specifically targets ringdown signals. We present a critical re-analysis of GW190521 -- a short-duration, merger-dominated event with conflicting interpretations. Spin-aligned and precessing analyses at two ringdown start times show that precession induces modest but systematic shifts in inferred parameters and subdominant mode amplitudes, although such ringdown-only analyses provide no strong evidence for precession. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of physics-informed precessing ringdown modelling, paving the way for the identification of spin precession in gravitational-wave events using solely their ringdown stages, where waveform systematics are expected to be substantially less prominent.
title Black-hole ringdown with templates capturing spin precession: a critical re-analysis of GW190521
topic General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.05193