A Detailed Analysis of GW190521 with Phenomenological Waveform Models

Abstract

Abstract In this paper we present an extensive analysis of the GW190521 gravitational wave event with the current (fourth) generation of phenomenological waveform models for binary black hole coalescences. GW190521 stands out from other events since only a few wave cycles are observable. This leads to a number of challenges, one being that such short signals are prone to not resolving approximate waveform degeneracies, which may result in multimodal posterior distributions. The family of waveform models we use includes a new fast time-domain model (IMRPhenomTPHM), which allows us to extensively test different priors and robustness with respect to variations in the waveform model, including the content of spherical harmonic modes. We clarify some issues raised in a recent paper, Nitz & Capano, associated with possible support for a high-mass-ratio source, but confirm their finding of a multimodal posterior distribution, albeit with important differences in the statistical significance of the peaks. In particular, we find that the support for both masses being outside the pair instability supernova mass gap, and the support for an intermediate-mass-ratio binary are drastically reduced with respect to what Nitz & Capano found. We also provide updated probabilities for associating GW190521 to the potential electromagnetic counterpart from the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) Graham et al.