Constraining parametric deviations from the Kerr spacetime using black hole ringdowns of GW150914 and GW190521

Abstract

The ringdown phase of a binary black hole merger is modelled by the quasi-normal modes of a perturbed Kerr black hole. According to the black hole no-hair theorem, the emitted ringdown spectra are constrained by the mass and spin of the remnant black hole and thus offer an excellent test of the Kerr-nature of black holes. As a parameterization of beyond-Kerr effects, we employ the Johannsen-Psaltis metric ansatz. We analyze the ringdown of two binary black hole merger events- GW150914 and GW190521 to constrain the deviation from Kerr. We find that both events are consistent with the Kerr metric and due to the larger signal-to-noise ratio and the presence of the additional subdominant mode in the ringdown phase, we find a factor of ~2 improvement in constraints on the deviation parameter in the case of GW190521 as compared to GW150914. Moreover, we find that the deviation parameter is anti-correlated to the spin of the remnant black hole. We also explore the effect of priors for other physical parameters on the Kerr deviation.