Using recent results from numerical relativity simulations of non-spinning
binary black hole mergers we revisit the problem of detecting ringdown
waveforms and of estimating the source parameters, considering both LISA and
Earth-based interferometers. We find that Advanced LIGO and EGO could detect
intermediate-mass black holes of mass up to about 1000 solar masses out to a
luminosity distance of a few Gpc. For typical multipolar energy distributions,
we show that the single-mode ringdown templates presently used for ringdown
searches in the LIGO data stream can produce a significant event loss (> 10%
for all detectors in a large interval of black hole masses) and very large
parameter estimation errors on the black hole's mass and spin. We estimate that
more than 10^6 templates would be needed for a single-stage multi-mode search.
Therefore, we recommend a "two stage" search to save on computational costs:
single-mode templates can be used for detection, but multi-mode templates or
Prony methods should be used to estimate parameters once a detection has been
made. We update estimates of the critical signal-to-noise ratio required to
test the hypothesis that two or more modes are present in the signal and to
resolve their frequencies, showing that second-generation Earth-based detectors
and LISA have the potential to perform no-hair tests.Comment: 19 pages, 9 figures, matches version in press in PR