A nonlinear voice from GW250114 ringdown
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arXiv
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| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2026
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| _version_ | 1866917191848296448 |
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| author | Wang, Yi-Fan Ma, Sizheng Khera, Neev Yang, Huan |
| author_facet | Wang, Yi-Fan Ma, Sizheng Khera, Neev Yang, Huan |
| contents | The detection of quadratic quasi-normal modes would provide a direct probe into black hole nonlinear perturbations. We report the first observational evidence of a set of quadratic quasi-normal modes in the gravitational-wave ringdown of a binary black hole merger. Analyzing the signal from GW250114, we detect six nonlinear modes from the quadratic coupling of the fundamental $(2,2,0)$ mode and its first two overtones. At 5 final mass ($M_\mathrm{f}$) after the merger, the evidence for these nonlinear modes reaches a Bayes factor of 74. To single out these contributions, we employ recent theoretical progress to compute the waveforms and subtract the corresponding nonlinear modes from a numerical relativity surrogate waveform. Our data analysis uses a novel method that incorporates inspiral-merger inference results as a highly constraining prior for the ringdown inference. We further perform a test allowing for phenomenological deviations for the theoretically predicted amplitudes of the quadratic modes. The results show that an amplitude of zero is excluded at $3.0~σ$ significance level, while the theoretical expectation is consistent with the inference. This detection marks a first step towards observationally characterizing nonlinear perturbations in the ringdown of a black hole. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_05734 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | A nonlinear voice from GW250114 ringdown Wang, Yi-Fan Ma, Sizheng Khera, Neev Yang, Huan General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena The detection of quadratic quasi-normal modes would provide a direct probe into black hole nonlinear perturbations. We report the first observational evidence of a set of quadratic quasi-normal modes in the gravitational-wave ringdown of a binary black hole merger. Analyzing the signal from GW250114, we detect six nonlinear modes from the quadratic coupling of the fundamental $(2,2,0)$ mode and its first two overtones. At 5 final mass ($M_\mathrm{f}$) after the merger, the evidence for these nonlinear modes reaches a Bayes factor of 74. To single out these contributions, we employ recent theoretical progress to compute the waveforms and subtract the corresponding nonlinear modes from a numerical relativity surrogate waveform. Our data analysis uses a novel method that incorporates inspiral-merger inference results as a highly constraining prior for the ringdown inference. We further perform a test allowing for phenomenological deviations for the theoretically predicted amplitudes of the quadratic modes. The results show that an amplitude of zero is excluded at $3.0~σ$ significance level, while the theoretical expectation is consistent with the inference. This detection marks a first step towards observationally characterizing nonlinear perturbations in the ringdown of a black hole. |
| title | A nonlinear voice from GW250114 ringdown |
| topic | General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.05734 |