Constraining black hole mimickers with gravitational wave observations

LIGO and Virgo have recently observed a number of gravitational wave (GW) signals that are fully consistent with being emitted by binary black holes described by general relativity. However, there are theoretical proposals of exotic objects that can be massive and compact enough to be easily confuse...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review. D 2020-12, Vol.102 (12), Article 123010
Main Authors: Johnson-McDaniel, Nathan K., Mukherjee, Arunava, Kashyap, Rahul, Ajith, Parameswaran, Del Pozzo, Walter, Vitale, Salvatore
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Black holes
Constraining
Equations of state
Gravitation
Gravitational waves
Mathematical models
Parameter estimation
Relativity
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Summary:LIGO and Virgo have recently observed a number of gravitational wave (GW) signals that are fully consistent with being emitted by binary black holes described by general relativity. However, there are theoretical proposals of exotic objects that can be massive and compact enough to be easily confused with black holes. Nevertheless, these objects differ from black holes in having nonzero tidal deformabilities, which can allow one to distinguish binaries containing such objects from binary black holes using GW observations. Using full Bayesian parameter estimation, we investigate the possibility of constraining the parameter space of such "black hole mimickers" with upcoming GW observations. Employing perfect fluid stars with a polytropic equation of state as a simple model that can encompass a variety of possible black hole mimickers, we show how the observed masses and tidal deformabilities of a binary constrain the equation of state. We also show how such constraints can be used to rule out binaries of some simple models of boson stars as possible sources of the simulated events we consider.
ISSN:2470-0010
2470-0029
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevD.102.123010