Parameter estimation for the GWTC-4.0 catalog with phenomenological waveform models that include orbital eccentricity and an updated description of spin precession
gr-qc, astro-ph.CO, astro-ph.HE
Submitted: 2025-12-22
Updated: 2025-12-22
Comments: 22 pages, 13 figures
Journal ref: Phys. Rev. D 113, 083001 (2026)
DOI: 10.1103/w6vy-v8vz
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
The gist: 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
Terminology
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.
Sources
- GWTC-4.0: An Introduction to Version 4.0 of the Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog
- GWTC-4.0: Methods for Identifying and Characterizing Gravitational-wave Transients
- GWTC-4.0: Updating the Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog with Observations from the First Part of the Fourth LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Observing Run
- LIGO Detector Characterization in the first half of the fourth Observing run
- GWTC-4.0: Population Properties of Merging Compact Binaries
- GWTC-4.0: Constraints on the Cosmic Expansion Rate and Modified Gravitational-wave Propagation
- Observation of Gravitational Waves from the Coalescence of a 2.5-4.5 M Compact Object and a Neutron Star
- GW230814: investigation of a loud gravitational-wave signal observed with a single detector
- GW231123: a Binary Black Hole Merger with Total Mass 190-265 $M_{\odot}$
- Setting the cornerstone for the IMRPhenomX family of models for gravitational waves from compact binaries: The dominant harmonic for non-precessing quasi-circular black holes
- IMRPhenomXHM: A multi-mode frequency-domain model for the gravitational wave signal from non-precessing black-hole binaries
- Fast frequency-domain gravitational waveforms for precessing binaries with a new twist
- SEOBNRv5PHM: Next generation of accurate and efficient multipolar precessing-spin effective-one-body waveforms for binary black holes
- Adding equatorial-asymmetric effects for spin-precessing binaries into the SEOBNRv5PHM waveform model
- Surrogate model of hybridized numerical relativity binary black hole waveforms
- The final twist: A model of gravitational waves from precessing black-hole binaries through merger and ringdown
- PhenomXO4a: a phenomenological gravitational-wave model for precessing black-hole binaries with higher multipoles and asymmetries
- First frequency-domain phenomenological model of the multipole asymmetry in gravitational-wave signals from binary-black-hole coalescence
- Time domain phenomenological model of gravitational wave subdominant harmonics for quasi-circular non-precessing binary black hole coalescences
- New twists in compact binary waveform modelling: a fast time domain model for precession
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