1,042 research outputs found
LISA observations of supermassive black holes: parameter estimation using full post-Newtonian inspiral waveforms
We study parameter estimation of supermassive black hole binary systems in
the final stage of inspiral using the full post-Newtonian gravitational
waveforms. We restrict our analysis to systems in circular orbit with
negligible spins, in the mass range 10^8\Ms-10^5\Ms, and compare the results
with those arising from the commonly used restricted post-Newtonian
approximation. The conclusions of this work are particularly important with
regard to the astrophysical reach of future LISA measurements. Our analysis
clearly shows that modeling the inspiral with the full post-Newtonian waveform,
not only extends the reach to higher mass systems, but also improves in general
the parameter estimation. In particular, there are remarkable improvements in
angular resolution and distance measurement for systems with a total mass
higher than 5\times10^6\Ms, as well as a large improvement in the mass
determination.Comment: Final version. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
LISA observations of massive black holes binaries using post-Newtonian wave-forms
We consider LISA observations of in-spiral signals emitted by massive black
hole binary systems in circular orbit and with negligible spins. We study the
accuracy with which the source parameters can be extracted from the data
stream. We show that the use of waveforms retaining post-Newtonian corrections
not only to the phase but also the amplitude can drastically improve the
estimation of some parameters.Comment: Latex 2 pages, 1 figure. To appear in: "Third Amaldi Conference on
Gravitational Waves". Edt. S. Meshkov; American Institute of Physic
Higher harmonics increase LISA's mass reach for supermassive black holes
Current expectations on the signal to noise ratios and masses of supermassive
black holes which the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) can observe are
based on using in matched filtering only the dominant harmonic of the inspiral
waveform at twice the orbital frequency. Other harmonics will affect the
signal-to-noise ratio of systems currently believed to be observable by LISA.
More significantly, inclusion of other harmonics in our matched filters would
mean that more massive systems that were previously thought to be {\it not}
visible in LISA should be detectable with reasonable SNRs. Our estimates show
that we should be able to significantly increase the mass reach of LISA and
observe the more commonly occurring supermassive black holes of masses More specifically, with the inclusion of all known harmonics LISA
will be able to observe even supermassive black hole coalescences with total
mass (and mass-ratio 0.1) for a low frequency
cut-off of with an SNR up to
at a distance of 3 Gpc. This is important from the astrophysical
viewpoint since observational evidence for the existence of black holes in this
mass range is quite strong and binaries containing such supermassive black
holes will be inaccessible to LISA if one uses as detection templates only the
dominant harmonic.Comment: minor corrections mad
Removing Line Interference from Gravitational Wave Interferometer Data
We describe a procedure to identify and remove a class of interference lines
from gravitational wave interferometer data. We illustrate the usefulness of
this technique applying it to prototype interferometer data and removing all
those lines corresponding to the external electricity main supply and related
features.Comment: Latex 6 pages, 5 figures. To appear in: "Gravitational Wave Detection
II". Edt. Rie Sasaki; Universal Academy Press, Inc, Tokyo, Japa
Searching for continuous gravitational wave signals: the hierarchical Hough transform algorithm
It is well known that matched filtering techniques cannot be applied for
searching extensive parameter space volumes for continuous gravitational wave
signals. This is the reason why alternative strategies are being pursued.
Hierarchical strategies are best at investigating a large parameter space when
there exist computational power constraints. Algorithms of this kind are being
implemented by all the groups that are developing software for analyzing the
data of the gravitational wave detectors that will come online in the next
years. In this talk we will report about the hierarchical Hough transform
method that the GEO 600 data analysis team at the Albert Einstein Institute is
developing. The three step hierarchical algorithm has been described elsewhere.
In this talk we will focus on some of the implementational aspects we are
currently concerned with.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure. To appear in the proceedings of the conference
``Gravitational waves: a challenge to theoretical astrophysics'', (June 5-9
2000, Trieste), ICTP Lecture Notes Serie
Parameter estimation of coalescing supermassive black hole binaries with LISA
Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) will routinely observe coalescences
of supermassive black hole (BH) binaries up to very high redshifts. LISA can
measure mass parameters of such coalescences to a relative accuracy of
, for sources at a distance of 3 Gpc. The problem of parameter
estimation of massive nonspinning binary black holes using post-Newtonian (PN)
phasing formula is studied in the context of LISA. Specifically, the
performance of the 3.5PN templates is contrasted against its 2PN counterpart
using a waveform which is averaged over the LISA pattern functions. The
improvement due to the higher order corrections to the phasing formula is
examined by calculating the errors in the estimation of mass parameters at each
order. The estimation of the mass parameters and are
significantly enhanced by using the 3.5PN waveform instead of the 2PN one. For
an equal mass binary of at a luminosity distance of 3 Gpc,
the improvement in chirp mass is and that of is .
Estimation of coalescence time worsens by 43%. The improvement is larger
for the unequal mass binary mergers. These results are compared to the ones
obtained using a non-pattern averaged waveform. The errors depend very much on
the location and orientation of the source and general conclusions cannot be
drawn without performing Monte Carlo simulations. Finally the effect of the
choice of the lower frequency cut-off for LISA on the parameter estimation is
studied.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures (eps) significant revision, accepted for
publication in Phys. Rev. D. Matches with the published versio
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