2,560 research outputs found
Observing mergers of non-spinning black-hole binaries
Advances in the field of numerical relativity now make it possible to
calculate the final, most powerful merger phase of binary black-hole
coalescence for generic binaries. The state of the art has advanced well beyond
the equal-mass case into the unequal-mass and spinning regions of parameter
space. We present a study of the nonspinning portion of parameter space,
primarily using an analytic waveform model tuned to available numerical data,
with an emphasis on observational implications. We investigate the impact of
varied mass ratio on merger signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) for several
detectors, and compare our results with expectations from the test-mass limit.
We note a striking similarity of the waveform phasing of the merger waveform
across the available mass ratios. Motivated by this, we calculate the match
between our 1:1 (equal mass) and 4:1 mass-ratio waveforms during the merger as
a function of location on the source sky, using a new formalism for the match
that accounts for higher harmonics. This is an indicator of the amount of
degeneracy in mass ratio for mergers of moderate-mass-ratio systems.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Proposed Search For The Detection Of Gravitational Waves From Eccentric Binary Black Holes
Most compact binary systems are expected to circularize before the frequency of emitted gravitational waves (GWs) enters the sensitivity band of the ground based interferometric detectors. However, several mechanisms have been proposed for the formation of binary systems, which retain eccentricity throughout their lifetimes. Since no matched-filtering algorithm has been developed to extract continuous GW signals from compact binaries on orbits with low to moderate values of eccentricity, and available algorithms to detect binaries on quasicircular orbits are suboptimal to recover these events, in this paper we propose a search method for detection of gravitational waves produced from the coalescences of eccentric binary black holes (eBBH). We study the search sensitivity and the false alarm rates on a segment of data from the second joint science run of LIGO and Virgo detectors, and discuss the implications of the eccentric binary search for the advanced GW detectors
Random Projections For Large-Scale Regression
Fitting linear regression models can be computationally very expensive in
large-scale data analysis tasks if the sample size and the number of variables
are very large. Random projections are extensively used as a dimension
reduction tool in machine learning and statistics. We discuss the applications
of random projections in linear regression problems, developed to decrease
computational costs, and give an overview of the theoretical guarantees of the
generalization error. It can be shown that the combination of random
projections with least squares regression leads to similar recovery as ridge
regression and principal component regression. We also discuss possible
improvements when averaging over multiple random projections, an approach that
lends itself easily to parallel implementation.Comment: 13 pages, 3 Figure
On Gravitational Waves in Spacetimes with a Nonvanishing Cosmological Constant
We study the effect of a cosmological constant on the propagation
and detection of gravitational waves. To this purpose we investigate the
linearised Einstein's equations with terms up to linear order in in a
de Sitter and an anti-de Sitter background spacetime. In this framework the
cosmological term does not induce changes in the polarization states of the
waves, whereas the amplitude gets modified with terms depending on .
Moreover, if a source emits a periodic waveform, its periodicity as measured by
a distant observer gets modified. These effects are, however, extremely tiny
and thus well below the detectability by some twenty orders of magnitude within
present gravitational wave detectors such as LIGO or future planned ones such
as LISA.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review
Calibration Of The Advanced Ligo Detectors For The Discovery Of The Binary Black-Hole Merger Gw150914
In Advanced LIGO, detection and astrophysical source parameter estimation of the binary black hole merger GW150914 requires a calibrated estimate of the gravitational-wave strain sensed by the detectors. Producing an estimate from each detector\u27s differential arm length control loop readout signals requires applying time domain filters, which are designed from a frequency domain model of the detector\u27s gravitational-wave response. The gravitational-wave response model is determined by the detector\u27s opto-mechanical response and the properties of its feedback control system. The measurements used to validate the model and characterize its uncertainty are derived primarily from a dedicated photon radiation pressure actuator, with cross-checks provided by optical and radio frequency references. We describe how the gravitational-wave readout signal is calibrated into equivalent gravitational-wave-induced strain and how the statistical uncertainties and systematic errors are assessed. Detector data collected over 38 calendar days, from September 12 to October 20, 2015, contain the event GW150914 and approximately 16 days of coincident data used to estimate the event false alarm probability. The calibration uncertainty is less than 10% in magnitude and 10° in phase across the relevant frequency band, 20 Hz to 1 kHz
Gw150914: Implications For The Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background From Binary Black Holes
Search For Post-Merger Gravitational Waves From The Remnant Of The Binary Neutron Star Merger Gw170817
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