Testing the first law of black hole mechanics with gravitational waves

Abstract

The successful observation of gravitational waves has provided humanity with an additional method to explore the universe, particularly black holes. In this study, we utilize data from LIGO and Virgo gravitational wave observations to test the first law of black hole mechanics, employing two different approaches. We consider the secondary compact object as a perturbation to the primary black hole before the merger, and the remnant black hole as a stationary black hole after the merger. In the pre-merger and post-merger analysis, our results demonstrate consistency with the first law, with an error level of approximate 25% at a 68% credibility level for GW190403_051519. In the full inspiral-merger-ringdown analysis, our results show consistency with the first law of black hole mechanics, with an error level of about 6% at a 68% credibility level and 10% at a 95% credibility level for GW191219_163120. Additionally, we observe that the higher the mass ratio of the gravitational wave source, the more consistent our results are with the first law of black hole mechanics. Overall, our study sheds light on the nature of compact binary coalescence and their implications for black hole mechanics.