Published August 1989 | Version v1
Report

Detecting gravity waves from binary black holes

Description

One of the most attractive possible sources of strong gravitational waves would be a binary system comprising massive black holes (BH). The gravitational radiation from a binary is an elliptically polarized, periodic wave which could be observed continuously - or at intervals whenever a detector was available. This continuity of the signal is certainly appealing compared to waiting for individual pulses from infrequent random events. It also has the advantage over pulses that continued observation can increase the signal-to-noise ratio almost indefinitely. Furthermore, this system is dynamically simple; the theory of the generation of the radiation is unambiguous; all characteristics of the signal can be precisely related to the dynamical parameters of the source. The current situation is that while there is no observational evidence as yet for the existence of massive binary BH, their formation is theoretically plausible, and within certain coupled constraints of mass and location, their existence cannot be observationally excluded. Detecting gravitational waves from these objects might be the first observational proof of their existence

Additional details

Publishing Information

Imprint Title
Relativistic Gravitational Experiments in Space
Imprint Pagination
242 p.
Journal Page Range
p. 14-17.
Report number
N--90-19940

Conference

Title
Workshop on relativistic gravitation experiments in space.
Dates
28-30 Jun 1988.
Place
Annapolis, MD (USA).

INIS

Country of Publication
United States
Country of Input or Organization
United States
INIS RN
21081162
Subject category
S79: ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY;
Resource subtype / Literary indicator
Conference
Descriptors DEI
BLACK HOLES; DETECTION; EXPERIMENT PLANNING; GRAVITATIONAL WAVES; MEASURING METHODS; NEUTRON STARS; POLARIZATION; RADIATION SOURCES; SIGNAL-TO-NOISE RATIO; WHITE DWARF STARS
Descriptors DEC
DWARF STARS; PLANNING; STARS

Optional Information