Astrophysics from data analysis of spherical gravitational wave detectors

The direct detection of gravitational waves will provide valuable astrophysical information about many celestial objects. Also, it will be an important test to general relativity and other theories of gravitation. The gravitational wave detector SCHENBERG has recently undergone its first test run. It is expected to have its first scientific run soon. In this work the data analysis system of this spherical, resonant mass detector is tested through the simulation of the detection of gravitational waves generated during the inspiralling phase of a binary system. It is shown from the simulated data that it is not necessary to have all six transducers operational in order to determine the source's direction and the wave's amplitudes.Comment: 8 pages and 3 figure

Response of the Brazilian gravitational wave detector to signals from a black hole ringdown

It is assumed that a black hole can be disturbed in such a way that a ringdown gravitational wave would be generated. This ringdown waveform is well understood and is modelled as an exponentially damped sinusoid. In this work we use this kind of waveform to study the performance of the SCHENBERG gravitational wave detector. This first realistic simulation will help us to develop strategies for the signal analysis of this Brazilian detector. We calculated the signal-to-noise ratio as a function of frequency for the simulated signals and obtained results that show that SCHENBERG is expected to be sensitive enough to detect this kind of signal up to a distance of $\sim 20\mathrm{kpc}$.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, Amaldi 5 Conference Proceedings contribution. Submitted to Class. Quantum Gra

Determination of astrophysical parameters from the spherical gravitational wave detector data

The response of a spherical resonant-mass gravitational wave antenna can be written in terms of symmetric trace-free tensors. We apply this formalism to determine the direction of an incoming monochromatic wave, the orientation of its polarization ellipse and the wave\u27s two independent amplitudes, using the response amplitudes at five different points on the sphere surface. This formalism also allows us to determine the directions of burst sources

A geometric method for location of gravitational wave sources

We show that the interaction of a gravitational wave with a spherical resonant-mass antenna changes the antenna\u27s shape to that of an ellipsoid. These changes in shape always determine the direction of the incoming wave and may provide information on the wave\u27s polarization. We present a new approach for determining the position of astrophysical sources of gravitational waves which involves fewer calculations than in earlier methods. We also show how the measured quantities relate to the energy density of the wave. © 1997. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved