Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Gravitational waves

History of black holes revealed by their spin

Nature volume 548, pages 397–398 (2017)Cite this article

Subjects

Four probable detections of gravitational waves have so far been reported, each associated with the merger of two black holes. Analysis of the signals allows formation theories of such black-hole systems to be tested. See Letter p.426

The breakthrough detection of gravitational waves from merging black holes1, made by the US-based Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (Advanced LIGO), is driving an entirely new subfield of astronomy. An immediate issue is to understand the astrophysical origin of these black-hole systems. On page 426, Farr et al.2 report that the detection of only ten or so additional mergers should be sufficient to provide strong tests to discriminate between the main theories of how black holes form a merged pair.

Your institute does not have access to this article

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Figure 1: The spin properties of black-hole systems.

Notes

  1. See all news & views

References

  1. Abbott, B. P. et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 061102 (2016).

    ADS  MathSciNet  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Farr, W. M. et al. Nature 548, 426–429 (2017).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Elbert, O. D., Bullock, J. S. & Kaplinghat, M. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/1703.02551 (2017).

  4. Belczynski, K., Holz, D. E., Bulik, T. & O'Shaughnessy, R. Nature 534, 512–515 (2016).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Miller, M. C. & Miller, J. M. Phys. Rep. 548, 1–34 (2015).

    ADS  MathSciNet  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Rodriguez, C. L., Haster, C.-J., Chatterjee, S., Kalogera, V. & Rasio, F. A. Astrophys. J. Lett. 824, L8 (2016).

    ADS  Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Bird, S. et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 201301 (2016).

    ADS  Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Abbott, B. P. et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 241103 (2016).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Abbott, B. P. et al. Phys. Rev. X 6, 041015 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  10. Abbott, B. P. et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 221101 (2017).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pennsylvania State University, 16802, Pennsylvania, USA

    Steinn Sigurðsson

Authors
  1. Steinn Sigurðsson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Steinn Sigurðsson.

Related links

Related links

Related links in Nature Research

Gravitational waves: Stellar palaeontology

Astrophysics: Recipe for a black-hole merger

Gravitational waves: Dawn of a new astronomy

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Sigurðsson, S. History of black holes revealed by their spin. Nature 548, 397–398 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/548397a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/548397a

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing