RESULTS OF A SEARCH FOR INTERMEDIATE-MASS BLACK HOLES

31 May 2021 — The LIGO, Virgo and KAGRA collaborations report the results of a dedicated search for intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs), using data from the third observing run of the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. The paper describing these new results is now available on the ArXiv preprint server or from here. In this new search we again found the event GW190521, the first confirmed intermediate-mass black hole — as previously reported in September 2020 — but with higher significance. We also found some other possible IMBH candidates, but none qualify as significant. However, the results of our search have improved our understanding of the astrophysical merger rates of IMBH binaries. Read more about this analysis in the the science summary.