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3w ago

Peer-Reviewed GW250114 Analysis Confirms Kerr Black Holes and Hawking’s Area Law

Improved detectors with a novel signal-isolation method enabled this precision test.

Caption:This illustration portrays GW250114, a powerful collision between two black holes recently observed in gravitational waves. Ten years after LIGO’s landmark detection of the first gravitational waves, the observatory’s improved detectors allowed it to “hear” this celestial collision with unprecedented clarity. Though only LIGO was online during GW250114, it now routinely operates as part of a network with other gravitational-wave detectors, including Europe’s Virgo and Japan’s KAGRA. Credits: Aurore Simonnet (SSU/EdEon)/LVK/URI
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Overview

  • Physical Review Letters published the GW250114 study on September 10, led by Maximiliano Isi and Will Farr.
  • The event’s remnant measured about 63 solar masses and rotated roughly 100 times per second, according to the analysis.
  • A frequency-isolation technique cleanly separated the brief merger from the black hole’s ringdown, sharpening tests of general relativity.
  • The LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA network now operates at roughly double its 2015 sensitivity, with binary black-hole mergers seen about every three days.
  • Plans advance for LIGO A# upgrades and the 40 km Cosmic Explorer, though U.S. funding faces risk from proposed NSF cuts noted by researchers.