论文标题
您不能总是得到想要的东西：先前假设对解释GW190412的影响
You Can't Always Get What You Want: The Impact of Prior Assumptions on Interpreting GW190412
论文作者
论文摘要
GW190412是对黑洞二进制的首次观察，具有明确的不等质量。 GW190412的质量不对称以及测得的阳性有效灵感自旋允许推断组件黑洞自旋：发现系统中的主要黑洞具有0.17至0.59（90％可信范围）的无尺度自旋幅度。我们研究了组件黑洞的自旋幅度和倾斜度的先验选择如何影响GW190412参数估计的鲁棒性，并报告了先前假设套件的贝叶斯因子。根据用于描述信号的波形家族，我们发现边缘至中度（2：1-6：1）或强（$ \ gtrsim $ 20：1）与仅允许次级旋转的情况相比，对主要黑洞旋转的支持。我们展示了这些选择如何影响参数估计，并发现GW190412的不对称质量和阳性有效的灵感自旋在质量上是质量的，但不是定量的，对先前的假设稳健。我们的结果强调了在解释观察结果和考虑其数据中的相对支持时，考虑以天体物理动机或基于人群为基础的先验的重要性。
GW190412 is the first observation of a black hole binary with definitively unequal masses. GW190412's mass asymmetry, along with the measured positive effective inspiral spin, allowed for inference of a component black hole spin: the primary black hole in the system was found to have a dimensionless spin magnitude between 0.17 and 0.59 (90% credible range). We investigate how the choice of priors for the spin magnitudes and tilts of the component black holes affect the robustness of parameter estimates for GW190412, and report Bayes factors across a suite of prior assumptions. Depending on the waveform family used to describe the signal, we find either marginal to moderate (2:1-6:1) or strong ($\gtrsim$ 20:1) support for the primary black hole being spinning compared to cases where only the secondary is allowed to have spin. We show how these choices influence parameter estimates, and find the asymmetric masses and positive effective inspiral spin of GW190412 to be qualitatively, but not quantitatively, robust to prior assumptions. Our results highlight the importance of both considering astrophysically motivated or population-based priors in interpreting observations and considering their relative support from the data.
