LIGO Scientific, Virgo, and KAGRA Collaborations, Alexandre Sevrin, Alexandre Sevrin, Hannah Duval, Elise Van den Bossche, Kevin Turbang
The gravitational-wave signal GW250114 was observed by the two LIGO detectors with a network matched-filter signal-to-noise ratio of 80. The signal was emitted by the coalescence of two black holes with near-equal masses m\_\{1\}=33.6\_\{-0.8\}\textasciicircum{}\{+1.2\}M\_\{ā\} and m\_\{2\}=32.2\_\{-1.3\}\textasciicircum{}\{+0.8\}M\_\{ā\}, and small spins Ļ\_\{1,2\}ā¤0.26 (90\% credibility) and negligible eccentricity eā¤0.03. Postmerger data excluding the peak region are consistent with the dominant quadrupolar (ā=|m|=2) mode of a Kerr black hole and its first overtone. We constrain the modes' frequencies to Ā±30\% of the Kerr spectrum, providing a test of the remnant's Kerr nature. We also examine Hawking's area law, also known as the second law of black hole mechanics, which states that the total area of the black hole event horizons cannot decrease with time. A range of analyses that exclude up to five of the strongest merger cycles confirm that the remnant area is larger than the sum of the initial areas to high credibility.
LIGO Scientific, Virgo, and KAGRA Collaborations, Sevrin, A, Sevrin, A, Duval, H, Van den Bossche, E & Turbang, K 2025, 'Gw250114: testing Hawking's area law and the Kerr nature of black holes', Physical Review Letters, vol. 135, no. 11, 111403. https://doi.org/10.1103/kw5g-d732
LIGO Scientific, Virgo, and KAGRA Collaborations, Sevrin, A., Sevrin, A., Duval, H., Van den Bossche, E., & Turbang, K. (2025). Gw250114: testing Hawking's area law and the Kerr nature of black holes. Physical Review Letters, 135(11), Article 111403. https://doi.org/10.1103/kw5g-d732
@article{198abb6fd8d04344bac11f10483c6fb5,
title = "Gw250114: testing Hawking's area law and the Kerr nature of black holes",
abstract = "The gravitational-wave signal GW250114 was observed by the two LIGO detectors with a network matched-filter signal-to-noise ratio of 80. The signal was emitted by the coalescence of two black holes with near-equal masses m\_\{1\}=33.6\_\{-0.8\}\textasciicircum{}\{+1.2\}M\_\{ā\} and m\_\{2\}=32.2\_\{-1.3\}\textasciicircum{}\{+0.8\}M\_\{ā\}, and small spins Ļ\_\{1,2\}ā¤0.26 (90\% credibility) and negligible eccentricity eā¤0.03. Postmerger data excluding the peak region are consistent with the dominant quadrupolar (ā=|m|=2) mode of a Kerr black hole and its first overtone. We constrain the modes' frequencies to Ā±30\% of the Kerr spectrum, providing a test of the remnant's Kerr nature. We also examine Hawking's area law, also known as the second law of black hole mechanics, which states that the total area of the black hole event horizons cannot decrease with time. A range of analyses that exclude up to five of the strongest merger cycles confirm that the remnant area is larger than the sum of the initial areas to high credibility.",
keywords = "gr-qc, astro-ph.HE",
author = "\{LIGO Scientific, Virgo, and KAGRA Collaborations\} and D. Adhikari and Adhikari, \{R. X.\} and W. Ali and G. Baldi and Bell, \{A. S.\} and Blair, \{C. D.\} and S. Bose and H. Cao and S. Chakraborty and Chan, \{J. C. L.\} and D. Chen and Chen, \{H. Y.\} and Chen, \{H. Y.\} and S. Chen and C. Chou and N. Christensen and Clark, \{J. A.\} and Collette, \{C. G.\} and L. Conti and Cullen, \{T. J.\} and Davis, \{M. C.\} and P. Davis and Bolle, \{J. De\} and J. Ding and H. Duval and M. Esposito and M. Gosselin and J. Graves and H. Guo and W. Guo and Y. Guo and Gupta, \{N. C.\} and Gupta, \{S. K.\} and N. Gutierrez and Huang, \{H. Y.\} and Y. Huang and Y. Huang and Iqbal, \{M. H.\} and T. Islam and M. Jain and T. Jain and James, \{A. L.\} and M. Jensen and J. Jiang and Jin, \{H. -B.\} and Jones, \{D. I.\} and Jones, \{D. I.\} and Joshi, \{S. K.\} and Kim, \{J. C.\} and Kim, \{M. H.\} and S. Kim and Kim, \{Y. -M.\} and M. Lalleman and J. Larsen and Lee, \{H. W.\} and Lee, \{H. W.\} and J. Lee and K. Lee and Y. Lee and Li, \{A. K. Y.\} and Li, \{K. L.\} and Li, \{T. G. F.\} and X. Li and Y. Li and Z. Li and Lin, \{Y. -C.\} and Liu, \{G. C.\} and Jian Liu and A. Malik and M. Mantovani and Martin, \{R. M.\} and Martins, \{J. C.\} and C. Michel and Miller, \{S. J.\} and Mitchell, \{A. L.\} and S. More and S. Ng and A. Pal and S. Pal and H. Pan and S. Peters and H. Pham and M. Pinto and Pradhan, \{B. K.\} and J. Qin and S. Raja and R. Reyes and M. Ricci and Richardson, \{J. W.\} and Richardson, \{M. L.\} and S. Saha and M. Sakellariadou and A. Sanchez and Sanchez, \{E. J.\} and Sanchez, \{L. E.\} and Sanders, \{J. R.\} and P. Schmidt and Sengupta, \{A. S.\} and A. Sevrin and Shaikh, \{M. A.\} and N. Singh and S. Singh and L. Smith and Smith, \{R. J. E.\} and I. Song and V. Sordini and P. Stevens and J. Sun and L. Sun and K. Tanaka and Tanaka, \{S. J.\} and Thomas, \{L. M.\} and M. Thomas and P. Thomas and K. Turbang and Dael, \{M. van\} and Broeck, \{C. Van Den\} and Walle, \{A. Van de\} and Dongen, \{J. van\} and M. Vereecken and Vermeulen, \{S. M.\} and Vincent, \{E. T.\} and Wang, \{E. J.\} and H. Wang and Wang, \{J. Z.\} and Wang, \{W. H.\} and Wang, \{Y. F.\} and Williams, \{M. J.\} and M. Wils and Wong, \{H. T.\} and T. Wouters and Wright, \{J. L.\} and C. Wu and Wu, \{D. S.\} and H. Wu and K. Wu and Q. Wu and Y. Wu and Z. Wu and Y. Xu and N. Yadav and Y. Yang and L. Zhang and T. Zhang and C. Zhao and Zhao, \{Z. -C.\} and Y. Zheng and Zhu, \{H. O.\} and Zhu, \{Z. -H.\} and Alexandre Sevrin and Alexandre Sevrin and Hannah Duval and \{Van den Bossche\}, Elise and Kevin Turbang",
note = "6 pages, 5 figures (plus supplement)",
year = "2025",
month = sep,
day = "10",
doi = "10.1103/kw5g-d732",
language = "English",
volume = "135",
journal = "Physical Review Letters",
issn = "0031-9007",
publisher = "American Physical Society",
number = "11",
}