The effect of different eLISA-like configurations on massive black hole parameter estimation

As the theme for the future L3 Cosmic Vision mission, ESA has recently chosen the `Gravitational Wave Universe'. Within this call, a mission concept called eLISA has been proposed. This observatory has a current initial configuration consisting of 4 laser links between the three satellites, which are separated by a distance of one million kilometers, constructing a single channel Michelson interferometer. However, the final configuration for the observatory will not be fixed until the end of this decade. With this in mind, we investigate the effect of different eLISA-like configurations on massive black hole detections. This work compares the results of a Bayesian inference study of 120 massive black hole binaries out to a redshift of $z\sim13$ for a $10^6$m arm-length eLISA with four and six links, as well as a $2\times10^6$m arm-length observatory with four links. We demonstrate that the original eLISA configuration should allow us to recover the luminosity distance of the source with an error of less than 10% out to a redshift of $z\sim4$, and a sky error box of $\leq10^2\,deg^2$ out to $z\sim0.1$. In contrast, both alternative configurations suggest that we should be able to conduct the same parameter recovery with errors of less than 10% in luminosity distance out to $z\sim12$ and $\leq10^2\,deg^2$ out to $z\sim0.4$. Using the information from these studies, we also infer that if we were able to construct a 2Gm, 6-link detector, the above values would shift to $z\sim20$ for luminosity distance and $z\sim0.9$ for sky error. While the final configuration will also be dependent on both technological and financial considerations, our study suggests that increasing the size of a two arm detector is a viable alternative to the inclusion of a third arm in a smaller detector. More importantly, this work further suggests no clear scientific loss between either choice.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure

An Overview of LISA Data Analysis Algorithms

The development of search algorithms for gravitational wave sources in the LISA data stream is currently a very active area of research. It has become clear that not only does difficulty lie in searching for the individual sources, but in the case of galactic binaries, evaluating the fidelity of resolved sources also turns out to be a major challenge in itself. In this article we review the current status of developed algorithms for galactic binary, non-spinning supermassive black hole binary and extreme mass ratio inspiral sources. While covering the vast majority of algorithms, we will highlight those that represent the state of the art in terms of speed and accuracy.Comment: 21 pages. Invited highlight article appearing in issue 01 of Gravitational Waves Notes, "GW Notes", edited by Pau Amaro-Seoane and Bernard F. Schutz at: http://brownbag.lisascience.org/lisa-gw-notes

Multiplicities and particle production at LEP

Recent results on hadron multiplicities in heavy and light quark fragmentation above the Z peak (OPAL), and multiplicity distribution analysis (L3) and inclusive f_1 production (DELPHI) in hadronic Z decays are presented.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figs. Talk given at the International Europhysics Conference on High Energy Physics, EPS-HEP2003, 17-23 July 2003, Aachen, German

Multiplicities and Correlations at LEP

A brief review on recent charge multiplicity and correlation measurements at LEP is given. The measurements of unbiased gluon jet multiplicity are discussed. Recent results on charged particle Bose-Einstein and Fermi-Dirac correlations at LEP1 are reported. New results on two-particle correlations of neutral pions are given. Correlations of more than two particles (high-order correlations) obtained using different methods are performed. Recent Bose-Einstein correlation measurements at LEP2 are discussed.Comment: 5 pages. Invited talk presented at the Xth International Workshop on Deep Inelastic Scattering (DIS2002), Cracow, 30 April - 4 May 200

Intermittency and Correlations at LEP and at HERA

A review on recent investigations of local fluctuations and genuine correlations in electron-positron annihilations at LEP and in positron-proton collisions at HERA is given.Comment: Invited talk given at the XXXth Int. Symposium on Multiparticle Dynamics (ISMD 2000), 9-15 October 2000, Tihany, Lake Balaton, Hungar

Detecting compact galactic binaries using a hybrid swarm-based algorithm

Compact binaries in our galaxy are expected to be one of the main sources of gravitational waves for the future eLISA mission. During the mission lifetime, many thousands of galactic binaries should be individually resolved. However, the identification of the sources, and the extraction of the signal parameters in a noisy environment are real challenges for data analysis. So far, stochastic searches have proven to be the most successful for this problem. In this work we present the first application of a swarm-based algorithm combining Particle Swarm Optimization and Differential Evolution. These algorithms have been shown to converge faster to global solutions on complicated likelihood surfaces than other stochastic methods. We first demonstrate the effectiveness of the algorithm for the case of a single binary in a 1 mHz search bandwidth. This interesting problem gave the algorithm plenty of opportunity to fail, as it can be easier to find a strong noise peak rather than the signal itself. After a successful detection of a fictitious low-frequency source, as well as the verification binary RXJ0806.3+1527, we then applied the algorithm to the detection of multiple binaries, over different search bandwidths, in the cases of low and mild source confusion. In all cases, we show that we can successfully identify the sources, and recover the true parameters within a 99\% credible interval.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figure