Gravitational-wave data analysis using binary black-hole waveforms

Abstract

Coalescing binary black-hole systems are among the most promising sources of gravitational waves for ground-based interferometers. While the \emph{inspiral} and \emph{ring-down} stages of the binary black-hole coalescence are well-modelled by analytical approximation methods in general relativity, the recent progress in numerical relativity has enabled us to compute accurate waveforms from the \emph{merger} stage also. This has an important impact on the search for gravitational waves from binary black holes. In particular, while the current gravitational-wave searches look for each stage of the coalescence separately, combining the results from analytical and numerical relativity enables us to \emph{coherently} search for all three stages using a single template family. `Complete' binary black-hole waveforms can now be produced by matching post-Newtonian waveforms with those computed by numerical relativity. These waveforms can be parametrised to produce analytical waveform templates. The `complete' waveforms can also be used to estimate the efficiency of different search methods aiming to detect signals from black-hole coalescences. This paper summarises some recent efforts in this direction.Comment: Minor modifications in the text, added table of phenomenological coefficient