An analysis of the binary black holemerger GW150914

Abstract

On September 2015 LIGO observatories detected the very first gravitational wave signal. Since than gravitational waves play a large role of interest in modern-day science. This thesis takes a closer look at the first observed gravitational wave signal, GW150914. It analyses the signal by first extracting the merger from the incoming data strain filled with dominant noise than being compared with a theoretical general relativity template. When the signal is extracted, the data is analyzed with Newtonian mechanics and compared to the publicly published data from LIGO. At last, it is briefly discussed how general relativity plays a large role in black hole mergers, also deriving the Einstein field equations.