Elder, Jamee (2023) Black Hole Coalescence: Observation and Model Validation. [Preprint]

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Abstract

This paper will discuss the recent LIGO-Virgo observations of gravitational waves and the binary black hole mergers that produce them. These observations rely on having prior knowledge of the dynamical behaviour of binary black hole systems, as governed by the Einstein Field Equations (EFEs). However, we currently lack any exact, analytic solutions to the EFEs describing such systems. In the absence of such solutions, a range of modelling approaches are used to mediate between the dynamical equations and the experimental data. Models based on post-Newtonian approximation, the effective one-body formalism, and numerical relativity simulations (and combinations of these) bridge the gap between theory and observations and make the LIGO-Virgo experiments possible. In particular, this paper will consider how such models are validated as accurate descriptions of real-world binary black hole mergers (and the resulting gravitational waves) in the face of an epistemic circularity problem: the validity of these models must be assumed to justify claims about gravitational wave sources, but this validity can only be established based on
these same observations.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Elder, Jamee jamee.elder@gmail.com 0000-0002-1482-5682
Keywords:	black holes, gravitational waves, models and simulations, observation
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Physics > Astrophysics General Issues > Evidence General Issues > Experimentation Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory General Issues > Theory/Observation
Depositing User:	Jamee Elder
Date Deposited:	14 Apr 2023 12:44
Last Modified:	14 Apr 2023 12:44
Item ID:	21987
DOI or Unique Handle:	10.1007/978-3-031-25686-8_5
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Physics > Astrophysics General Issues > Evidence General Issues > Experimentation Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory General Issues > Theory/Observation
Date:	2023
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/21987

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