6 ms·
Gravitational waves reveal collision of heavy and light black holes
- ttul 6y agoA link to the paper would be appreciated if anyone has it.
- aspenmayer 6y agoIt was a paid livestream of the virtual conference. Free slides available below. http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/APR20/Session/C06.2 http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/APR20/Session/C06.2
- clort 6y agoAre they saying that the frequency produced is the same as the note in the Elvis song or just that the ratio of the two notes in the song is the same as the ratio of the two frequencies detected? I mean, I am not sure what the frequencies generated by orbiting black holes would be.. but ~260hz (middle C) sounds destructively fast to me so I'm guessing the latter. What is the orbital frequency likely to be here?
- tehsauce 6y ago260hz is not unreasonable, black hole mergers are unimaginably violent. https://youtu.be/9IdVyArDlZ4 https://youtu.be/9IdVyArDlZ4
- clort 6y agoyes but I'm imagining that when the orbital frequency gets to that kind of level, the end would be extremely imminent? (for the remote observer anyway haha)
- maxnoe 6y agoYes, LIGO observes the actual merger. They report two initial masses, the final mass of the merged black hole and what as a result was radiated in energy.
- Jabbles 6y agoYes, but it's only when the black holes get extremely close that they produce gravitational waves powerful enough for us to detect. You're correct that for many years (millenia?) the black holes have been orbiting each other much more slowly. We can't detect that though.
- foota 6y agoI wonder what the right time scale is here. My gut reaction is million of years?
- enkid 6y agoI believe it depends on the specifics of the merger, but my understanding is the reason black holes that orbit each other merge at all is because they bleed energy to gravitational waves. While they are at a reasonable distance, that's a very small amount of energy. I think some of these systems would be stable for billions of years.
- jcims 6y agoJust for folks that aren't familiar pulsars are spinning stars that can hold themselves together up to at least ~1khz. Here's what the signal sounds like coming from a few different ones (incl. 600hz range) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb0P6x_xDEU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb0P6x_xDEU
- stormbrew 6y ago`If the main frequency were a C on a piano, the overtone would be the next higher G—a perfect fifth, and the interval of the first two notes in the melody of Elvis Presley’s hit “I Can’t Help Falling in Love with You.”` My read is that it's just saying that the first smaller frequency was the same ratio from the primary as G to C are in sound frequencies, so they're describing it as a similar interval as the first two notes, not as being literally the same tune.
- MiroF 6y agoTwo slower frequencies can interfere and produce a much higher frequency in a phenomenon known as beating