788 research outputs found
Improved filters for gravitational waves from inspiraling compact binaries
The order of the post-Newtonian expansion needed to extract in a reliable and accurate manner the fully general relativistic gravitational wave signal from inspiraling compact binaries is explored. A class of approximate wave forms, called P-approximants, is constructed based on the following two inputs: (a) the introduction of two new energy-type and flux-type functions e(v) and f(v), respectively, (b) the systematic use of the Padé approximation for constructing successive approximants of e(v) and f(v). The new P-approximants are not only more effectual (larger overlaps) and more faithful (smaller biases) than the standard Taylor approximants, but also converge faster and monotonically. The presently available (v/c)^5-accurate post-Newtonian results can be used to construct P-approximate wave forms that provide overlaps with the exact wave form larger than 96.5%, implying that more than 90% of potential events can be detected with the aid of P-approximants as opposed to a mere 10–15 % that would be detectable using standard post-Newtonian approximants
Cosmology with the lights off: Standard sirens in the Einstein Telescope era
We explore the prospects for constraining cosmology using gravitational-wave
(GW) observations of neutron-star binaries by the proposed Einstein Telescope
(ET), exploiting the narrowness of the neutron-star mass function. Double
neutron-star (DNS) binaries are expected to be one of the first sources
detected after "first-light" of Advanced LIGO and are expected to be detected
at a rate of a few tens per year in the advanced era. However the proposed ET
could catalog tens of thousands per year. Combining the measured source
redshift distributions with GW-network distance determinations will permit not
only the precision measurement of background cosmological parameters, but will
provide an insight into the astrophysical properties of these DNS systems. Of
particular interest will be to probe the distribution of delay times between
DNS-binary creation and subsequent merger, as well as the evolution of the
star-formation rate density within ET's detection horizon. Keeping H_0,
\Omega_{m,0} and \Omega_{\Lambda,0} fixed and investigating the precision with
which the dark-energy equation-of-state parameters could be recovered, we found
that with 10^5 detected DNS binaries we could constrain these parameters to an
accuracy similar to forecasted constraints from future CMB+BAO+SNIa
measurements. Furthermore, modeling the merger delay-time distribution as a
power-law, and the star-formation rate (SFR) density as a parametrized version
of the Porciani and Madau SF2 model, we find that the associated astrophysical
parameters are constrained to within ~ 10%. All parameter precisions scaled as
1/sqrt(N), where N is the number of cataloged detections. We also investigated
how precisions varied with the intrinsic underlying properties of the Universe
and with the distance reach of the network (which may be affected by the
low-frequency cutoff of the detector).Comment: 24 pages, 11 figures, 6 tables. Minor changes to reflect published
version. References updated and correcte
Higher signal harmonics, LISA's angular resolution, and dark energy
It is generally believed that the angular resolution of the Laser
Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) for binary supermassive black holes (SMBH)
will not be good enough to identify the host galaxy or galaxy cluster. This
conclusion, based on using only the dominant harmonic of the binary SMBH
signal, changes substantially when higher signal harmonics are included in
assessing the parameter estimation problem. We show that in a subset of the
source parameter space the angular resolution increases by more than a factor
of 10, thereby making it possible for LISA to identify the host galaxy/galaxy
cluster. Thus, LISA's observation of certain binary SMBH coalescence events
could constrain the dark energy equation of state to within a few percent,
comparable to the level expected from other dark energy missions.Comment: 15 pages, no figures. Final version to appear in Phys. Rev.
Parametrized tests of post-Newtonian theory using Advanced LIGO and Einstein Telescope
General relativity has very specific predictions for the gravitational
waveforms from inspiralling compact binaries obtained using the post-Newtonian
(PN) approximation. We investigate the extent to which the measurement of the
PN coefficients, possible with the second generation gravitationalwave
detectors such as the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave
Observatory (LIGO) and the third generation gravitational-wave detectors such
as the Einstein Telescope (ET), could be used to test post-Newtonian theory and
to put bounds on a subclass of parametrized-post-Einstein theories which differ
from general relativity in a parametrized sense. We demonstrate this
possibility by employing the best inspiralling waveform model for nonspinning
compact binaries which is 3.5PN accurate in phase and 3PN in amplitude. Within
the class of theories considered, Advanced LIGO can test the theory at 1.5PN
and thus the leading tail term. Future observations of stellar mass black hole
binaries by ET can test the consistency between the various PN coefficients in
the gravitational-wave phasing over the mass range of 11-44 Msun. The choice of
the lower frequency cut off is important for testing post-Newtonian theory
using the ET. The bias in the test arising from the assumption of nonspinning
binaries is indicated.Comment: 18 pages, 11 figures, Matches with the published versio
Gravitational waves from coalescing binaries: detection strategies and Monte Carlo estimation of parameters
The paper deals with issues pertaining the detection of gravitational waves
from coalescing binaries. We introduce the application of differential geometry
to the problem of optimal detection of the `chirp signal'. We have also carried
out extensive Monte Carlo simulations to understand the errors in the
estimation of parameters of the binary system. We find that the errors are much
more than those predicted by the covariance matrix even at a high SNR of 10-15.
We also introduce the idea of using the instant of coalescence rather than the
time of arrival to determine the direction to the source.Comment: 28 pages, REVTEX, 12 figures (bundled via uufiles command along with
this paper) submitted to Phys. Rev.
Propagation of gravitational waves in multimetric gravity
We discuss the propagation of gravitational waves in a recently discussed
class of theories containing N >= 2 metric tensors and a corresponding number
of standard model copies. Using the formalism of gauge-invariant linear
perturbation theory we show that all gravitational waves propagate at the speed
of light. We then employ the Newman-Penrose formalism to show that two to six
polarizations of gravitational waves may exist, depending on the parameters
entering the equations of motion. This corresponds to E(2) representations N_2,
N_3, III_5 and II_6. We finally apply our general discussion to a recently
presented concrete multimetric gravity model and show that it is of class N_2,
i.e., it allows only two tensor polarizations, as it is the case for general
relativity. Our results provide the theoretical background for tests of
multimetric gravity theories using the upcoming gravitational wave experiments.Comment: 21 pages, no figures, journal versio
Gravitational Wave Chirp Search: Economization of PN Matched Filter Bank via Cardinal Interpolation
The final inspiral phase in the evolution of a compact binary consisting of
black holes and/or neutron stars is among the most probable events that a
network of ground-based interferometric gravitational wave detectors is likely
to observe. Gravitational radiation emitted during this phase will have to be
dug out of noise by matched-filtering (correlating) the detector output with a
bank of several templates, making the computational resources required
quite demanding, though not formidable. We propose an interpolation method for
evaluating the correlation between template waveforms and the detector output
and show that the method is effective in substantially reducing the number of
templates required. Indeed, the number of templates needed could be a factor
smaller than required by the usual approach, when the minimal overlap
between the template bank and an arbitrary signal (the so-called {\it minimal
match}) is 0.97. The method is amenable to easy implementation, and the various
detector projects might benefit by adopting it to reduce the computational
costs of inspiraling neutron star and black hole binary search.Comment: scheduled for publicatin on Phys. Rev. D 6
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