We analyze the distinguishability of populations of coalescing binary neutron
stars, neutron-star black-hole binaries, and binary black holes, whose
gravitational-wave signatures are expected to be observed by the advanced
network of ground-based interferometers LIGO and Virgo. We consider
population-synthesis predictions for plausible merging binary distributions in
mass space, along with measurement accuracy estimates from the main
gravitational-wave parameter-estimation pipeline. We find that for our model
compact-object binary mass distribution, we can always distinguish binary
neutron stars and black-hole--neutron-star binaries, but not necessarily
black-hole--neutron-star binaries and binary black holes; however, with a few
tens of detections, we can accurately identify the three subpopulations and
measure their respective rates.Comment: Revised unabridged version (contains material omitted from published
version