Testing the black-hole area law with GW150914
Maximiliano Isi, Will M. Farr, Matthew Giesler, Mark A. Scheel, and, Saul A. Teukolsky
TL;DR
This paper provides observational evidence supporting Hawking's black-hole area law using GW150914 data, confirming the theorem's predictions with high probability through a novel time-domain analysis of gravitational wave signals.
Contribution
It introduces a new time-domain analysis method to test the black-hole area law with gravitational wave data, confirming the theorem's validity.
Findings
Agreement with the area law at 97% probability including overtones
Consistency of inspiral and ringdown with the same remnant mass and spin
Validation of general relativity predictions in black-hole mergers
Abstract
We present observational confirmation of Hawking's black-hole area theorem based on data from GW150914, finding agreement with the prediction with 97% (95%) probability when we model the ringdown including (excluding) overtones of the quadrupolar mode. We obtain this result from a new time-domain analysis of the pre- and postmerger data. We also confirm that the inspiral and ringdown portions of the signal are consistent with the same remnant mass and spin, in agreement with general relativity.
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