Olaf Dreyer et al 2004 Class. Quantum Grav. 21 787 doi:10.1088/0264-9381/21/4/003
Black-hole spectroscopy: testing general relativity through gravitational-wave observations
Olaf Dreyer1, Bernard Kelly2, Badri Krishnan3, Lee Samuel Finn4, David Garrison5 and Ramon Lopez-Aleman6
Show affiliationsAssuming that general relativity is the correct theory of gravity in the strong-field limit, can gravitational-wave observations distinguish between black holes and other compact object sources? Alternatively, can gravitational-wave observations provide a test of one of the fundamental predictions of general relativity: the no-hair theorem? Here we describe a definitive test of the hypothesis that observations of damped, sinusoidal gravitational waves originate from a black hole or, alternatively, that nature respects the general relativistic no-hair theorem. For astrophysical black holes, which have a negligible charge-to-mass ratio, the black-hole quasi-normal mode spectrum is characterized entirely by the black-hole mass and angular momentum and is unique to black holes. In a different theory of gravity, or if the observed radiation arises from a different source (e.g., a neutron star, strange matter or boson star), the spectrum will be inconsistent with that predicted for general relativistic black holes. We give a statistical characterization of the consistency between the noisy observation and the theoretical predictions of general relativity and a demonstration, through simulation, of the effectiveness of the test for strong sources.
- PACS
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04.70.-s Physics of black holes
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- Dates
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Issue 4 (21 February 2004)
Received 1 September 2003
Published 5 January 2004
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Black-hole spectroscopy: testing general relativity through gravitational-wave observations
Olaf Dreyer et al 2004 Class. Quantum Grav. 21 787
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