Parameter estimation for the GWTC-4.0 catalog with phenomenological waveform models that include orbital eccentricity and an updated description of spin precession

TL;DR

This paper enhances gravitational wave source characterization by incorporating orbital eccentricity and improved spin precession models into waveform analysis, updating the GWTC-4.0 catalog with refined parameter estimates for binary black hole mergers.

Contribution

It introduces an extended analysis of GWTC-4.0 using advanced waveform models that include eccentricity and spin precession, providing more accurate source property estimates.

Findings

Updated posterior samples for 84 events

Quantified effects of waveform model improvements on source parameters

Discussed systematic uncertainties in waveform modeling

Abstract

The GWTC-4.0 catalog of transient gravitational wave signals describes observations made in the first part of the fourth observing run of the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) gravitational wave detector network. Here we extend the LVK's GWTC-4.0 analysis to elliptic orbits, and an improved description of spin precession in the frequency domain. For this study we use state-of-the-art waveforms from the IMRPhenom family (specifically XPNR, TPHM, and TEHM), and we consider the 84 confidently detected events that are consistent with binary-black-hole mergers. We present an extended catalog of updated posterior samples, quantify how incorporation of these waveform effects alters inferred source properties relative to previous analyses, and discuss waveform systematics.