840 research outputs found
Cosmological inference using only gravitational wave observations of binary neutron stars
Gravitational waves emitted during the coalescence of binary neutron star systems are self-calibrating signals. As such, they can provide a direct measurement of the luminosity distance to a source without the need for a cross-calibrated cosmic distance-scale ladder. In general, however, the corresponding redshift measurement needs to be obtained via electromagnetic observations since it is totally degenerate with the total mass of the system. Nevertheless, Fisher matrix studies have shown that, if information about the equation of state of the neutron stars is available, it is possible to extract redshift information from the gravitational wave signal alone. Therefore, measuring the cosmological parameters in pure gravitational-wave fashion is possible. Furthermore, the huge number of sources potentially observable by the Einstein Telescope has led to speculations that the gravitational wave measurement is potentially competitive with traditional methods. The Einstein Telescope is a conceptual study for a third generation gravitational wave detector which is designed to yield 10^3–10^7 detections of binary neutron star systems per year. This study presents the first Bayesian investigation of the accuracy with which the cosmological parameters can be measured using information coming only from the gravitational wave observations of binary neutron star systems by the Einstein Telescope. We find, by direct simulation of 10^3 detections of binary neutron stars, that, within our simplifying assumptions, H_0, Ω_m, Ω_Λ, w_0 and w_1 can be measured at the 95% level with an accuracy of ∼8% , 65%, 39%, 80% and 90%, respectively. We also find, by extrapolation, that a measurement accuracy comparable with current measurements by Planck is possible if the number of gravitational wave events observed is O(10^(6–7)) . We conclude that, while not competitive with electromagnetic missions in terms of significant digits, gravitational waves alone are capable of providing a complementary determination of the dynamics of the Universe
Cosmological inference using only gravitational wave observations of binary neutron stars
Gravitational waves emitted during the coalescence of binary neutron star systems are self- calibrating signals. As such, they can provide a direct measurement of the luminosity distance to a source without the need for a cross-calibrated cosmic distance-scale ladder. In general, how- ever, the corresponding redshift measurement needs to be obtained via electromagnetic observations since it is totally degenerate with the total mass of the system. Nevertheless, Fisher matrix studies have shown that, if information about the equation of state of the neutron stars is available, it is possible to extract redshift information from the gravitational wave signal alone. Therefore, measuring the cosmological parameters in pure gravitational-wave fashion is possible. Furthermore, the huge number of sources potentially observable by the Einstein Telescope has led to speculations that the gravitational wave measurement is potentially competitive with traditional methods. The Einstein Telescope is a conceptual study for a third generation gravitational wave detector which is designed to yield 103 − 107 detections of binary neutron star systems per year. This study presents the first Bayesian investigation of the accuracy with which the cosmological parameters can be measured using information coming only from the gravitational wave observations of binary neutron star systems by Einstein Telescope. We find, by direct simulation of 103 detections of binary neutron stars, that, within our simplifying assumptions, H0, Ωm, ΩΛ, w0 and w1 can be measured at the 95% level with an accuracy of ∼ 8%,65%,39%,80% and 90%, respectively. We also find, by extrapolation, that a measurement accuracy comparable with current measurements by Planck is possible if the number of gravitational wave events observed is O(10^{6−7}).We conclude that, while not competitive with electro-magnetic missions in terms of significant digits, gravitational wave alone are capable of providing a complementary determination of the dynamics of the Universe
TIGER: A data analysis pipeline for testing the strong-field dynamics of general relativity with gravitational wave signals from coalescing compact binaries
The direct detection of gravitational waves with upcoming second-generation
gravitational wave detectors such as Advanced LIGO and Virgo will allow us to
probe the genuinely strong-field dynamics of general relativity (GR) for the
first time. We present a data analysis pipeline called TIGER (Test
Infrastructure for GEneral Relativity), which is designed to utilize detections
of compact binary coalescences to test GR in this regime. TIGER is a
model-independent test of GR itself, in that it is not necessary to compare
with any specific alternative theory. It performs Bayesian inference on two
hypotheses: the GR hypothesis , and , which states that one or more of the post-Newtonian coefficients in
the waveform are not as predicted by GR. By the use of multiple sub-hypotheses
of , in each of which a different number of
parameterized deformations of the GR phase are allowed, an arbitrarily large
number of 'testing parameters' can be used without having to worry about a
model being insufficiently parsimonious if the true number of extra parameters
is in fact small. TIGER is well-suited to the regime where most sources have
low signal-to-noise ratios, again through the use of these sub-hypotheses.
Information from multiple sources can trivially be combined, leading to a
stronger test. We focus on binary neutron star coalescences, for which
sufficiently accurate waveform models are available that can be generated fast
enough on a computer to be fit for use in Bayesian inference. We show that the
pipeline is robust against a number of fundamental, astrophysical, and
instrumental effects, such as differences between waveform approximants, a
limited number of post-Newtonian phase contributions being known, the effects
of neutron star spins and tidal deformability on the orbital motion, and
instrumental calibration errors.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures. Version as appears in Phys. Rev.
A Mock Data Challenge for the Einstein Gravitational-Wave Telescope
Einstein Telescope (ET) is conceived to be a third generation
gravitational-wave observatory. Its amplitude sensitivity would be a factor ten
better than advanced LIGO and Virgo and it could also extend the low-frequency
sensitivity down to 1--3 Hz, compared to the 10--20 Hz of advanced detectors.
Such an observatory will have the potential to observe a variety of different
GW sources, including compact binary systems at cosmological distances. ET's
expected reach for binary neutron star (BNS) coalescences is out to redshift
and the rate of detectable BNS coalescences could be as high as one
every few tens or hundreds of seconds, each lasting up to several days. %in the
sensitive frequency band of ET. With such a signal-rich environment, a key
question in data analysis is whether overlapping signals can be discriminated.
In this paper we simulate the GW signals from a cosmological population of BNS
and ask the following questions: Does this population create a confusion
background that limits ET's ability to detect foreground sources? How efficient
are current algorithms in discriminating overlapping BNS signals? Is it
possible to discern the presence of a population of signals in the data by
cross-correlating data from different detectors in the ET observatory? We find
that algorithms currently used to analyze LIGO and Virgo data are already
powerful enough to detect the sources expected in ET, but new algorithms are
required to fully exploit ET data.Comment: accepted for publication in Physical Review D -- 18 pages, 8 figure
Constraints on Kerr-Newman black holes from merger-ringdown gravitational-wave observations
We construct a template to model the post-merger phase of a binary black hole
coalescence in the presence of a remnant charge. We include the
quasi-normal modes typically dominant during a binary black hole coalescence,
and also present analytical fits for the
quasinormal mode frequencies of a Kerr-Newman black hole in terms of its spin
and charge, here also including the mode. Aside from astrophysical
electric charge, our template can accommodate extensions of the Standard Model,
such as a dark photon. Applying the model to LIGO-Virgo detections, we find
that we are unable to distinguish between the charged and uncharged hypotheses
from a purely post-merger analysis of the current events. However, restricting
the mass and spin to values compatible with the analysis of the full signal, we
obtain a 90th percentile bound on the black hole
charge-to-mass ratio, for the most favorable case of GW150914. Under similar
assumptions, by simulating a typical loud signal observed by the LIGO-Virgo
network at its design sensitivity, we assess that this model can provide a
robust measurement of the charge-to-mass ratio only for values ; here we also assume that the mode amplitudes are similar to the uncharged
case in creating our simulated signal. Lower values, down to , could instead be detected when evaluating the consistency of the
pre-merger and post-merger emission.Comment: 21 pages, 11 figures, 4 tables. Matches published versio
Cosmological inference using only gravitational wave observations of binary neutron stars
Gravitational waves emitted during the coalescence of binary neutron star systems are self-calibrating signals. As such, they can provide a direct measurement of the luminosity distance to a source without the need for a cross-calibrated cosmic distance-scale ladder. In general, however, the corresponding redshift measurement needs to be obtained via electromagnetic observations since it is totally degenerate with the total mass of the system. Nevertheless, Fisher matrix studies have shown that, if information about the equation of state of the neutron stars is available, it is possible to extract redshift information from the gravitational wave signal alone. Therefore, measuring the cosmological parameters in pure gravitational-wave fashion is possible. Furthermore, the huge number of sources potentially observable by the Einstein Telescope has led to speculations that the gravitational wave measurement is potentially competitive with traditional methods. The Einstein Telescope is a conceptual study for a third generation gravitational wave detector which is designed to yield 10^3–10^7 detections of binary neutron star systems per year. This study presents the first Bayesian investigation of the accuracy with which the cosmological parameters can be measured using information coming only from the gravitational wave observations of binary neutron star systems by the Einstein Telescope. We find, by direct simulation of 10^3 detections of binary neutron stars, that, within our simplifying assumptions, H_0, Ω_m, Ω_Λ, w_0 and w_1 can be measured at the 95% level with an accuracy of ∼8% , 65%, 39%, 80% and 90%, respectively. We also find, by extrapolation, that a measurement accuracy comparable with current measurements by Planck is possible if the number of gravitational wave events observed is O(10^(6–7)) . We conclude that, while not competitive with electromagnetic missions in terms of significant digits, gravitational waves alone are capable of providing a complementary determination of the dynamics of the Universe
Population inference of spin-induced quadrupole moments as a probe for non-black hole compact binaries
Gravitational-wave (GW) measurements of physical effects such as spin-induced
quadrupole moments can distinguish binaries consisting of black holes from
non-black hole binaries. While these effects may be poorly constrained for
single-event inferences with the second-generation detectors, combining
information from multiple detections can help uncover features of non-black
hole binaries. The spin-induced quadrupole moment has specific predictions for
different types of compact objects, and a generalized formalism must consider a
population where different types of compact objects co-exist. In this study, we
introduce a hierarchical mixture-likelihood formalism to estimate the {\it
fraction of non-binary black holes in the population}. We demonstrate the
applicability of this method using simulated GW signals injected into Gaussian
noise following the design sensitivities of the Advanced LIGO Advanced Virgo
detectors. We compare the performance of this method with a
traditionally-followed hierarchical inference approach. Both the methods are
equally effective to hint at inhomogeneous populations, however, we find the
mixture-likelihood approach to be more natural for mixture populations
comprising compact objects of diverse classes. We also discuss the possible
systematics in the mixture-likelihood approach, caused by several reasons,
including the limited sensitivity of the second-generation detectors, specific
features of the astrophysical population distributions, and the limitations
posed by the waveform models employed. Finally, we apply this method to the
LIGO-Virgo detections published in the second GW transient catalog (GWTC-2) and
find them consistent with a binary black hole population within the statistical
precision.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures, 1 tabl
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