Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS April Meeting 2010
Volume 55, Number 1
Saturday–Tuesday, February 13–16, 2010; Washington, DC
Session G14: Interpretation of Gravitational Wave Forms from Compact Binaries |
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Sponsoring Units: GGR Chair: Alessandra Buonanno, University of Maryland Room: Washington 4 |
Sunday, February 14, 2010 8:30AM - 8:42AM |
G14.00001: Use and Abuse of the Model Waveform Accuracy Standards Lee Lindblom Accuracy standards have been developed to ensure that the waveforms used for gravitational-wave data analysis are good enough to serve their intended purposes. These standards place constraints on certain norms of the frequency-domain representations of the waveform errors. Examples will be presented of possible misinterpretations and misapplications of these standards, whose effect could be to vitiate the quality control they were intended to enforce. Suggestions will be given for ways to avoid these problems. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, February 14, 2010 8:42AM - 8:54AM |
G14.00002: Fundamental bias and the Parameterized Post-Einstenian Framework Nicolas Yunes, Frans Pretorius With the imminent detection of gravitational waves, we must ask ourselves: how much do we trust general relativity? Experimental tests have confirmed the validity of general relativity in the weak-field, but no such tests exist in the strong, dynamical regime. Because of their inherent weakness, the extraction of gravitational waves relies on matched filtering, where templates are used to filter data. Currently, such templates are constructed assuming general relativity is correct and this assumption constitutes a fundamental bias, which could introduce a systematic error in the detection and parameter estimation of signals. In this talk, I define this bias, explain its possible consequences and propose a remedy: the parameterized post-Einsteinian framework. This framework enhances waveforms via the inclusion of post-Einsteinian parameters that allow for well-motivated deviations from general relativity. Matched filtering with these waveforms allows the data to select the theory that describes gravitational wave emission and propagation, without {\emph{a priori}} assuming the validity of general relativity. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, February 14, 2010 8:54AM - 9:06AM |
G14.00003: Gravitational-Wave Recoil from the Ringdown Phase of Coalescing Black Hole Binaries Clifford Will, Alexandre Le Tiec, Luc Blanchet The gravitational recoil or ``kick'' of a black hole formed from the merger of two orbiting black holes, and caused by the anisotropic emission of gravitational radiation, is an astrophysically important phenomenon. We combine (i) an earlier calculation, using post-Newtonian theory, of the kick velocity accumulated up to the merger of two non-spinning black holes, (ii) a ``close-limit approximation'' calculation of the radiation emitted during the ringdown phase, and based on a solution of the Regge-Wheeler and Zerilli equations using initial data accurate to second post-Newtonian order. We prove that ringdown radiation produces a significant ``anti-kick''. Adding the contributions due to inspiral, merger and ringdown phases, our results for the net kick velocity agree with those from numerical relativity to 10 to 15 percent over a wide range of mass ratios, with a maximum velocity of 180 km/s at a mass ratio of 0.38. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, February 14, 2010 9:06AM - 9:18AM |
G14.00004: Precision Measurement of Complete Black Hole Binary Inspiral-Merger-Ringdown Signals with LISA Sean McWilliams, James Ira Thorpe, John G. Baker, Bernard J. Kelly Until recently, only the inspiral and ringdown phases of black hole binary (BHB) coalescences had been modeled. The merger signals, which were expected to be the most luminous portion of the total signal, were unavailable due to the technical difficulty of calculating the behavior of a BHB in this highly dynamical and non-linear regime. Advancements in the field of numerical relativity make it possible to include the merger segment of BHB coalescence in the search for and characterization of gravitational wave signals. The implications for LISA include an increase in the event rate due to the increase in achievable signal-to-noise ratio, as well as potentially improved accuracy regarding the extraction of the source parameters. We investigate the degree to which mergers improve parameter estimation, by studying the impact of including mergers on achievable parameter accuracy over a significant range of masses and mass ratios for nonspinning systems, and its impact on LISA science. We find that nonspinning waveforms that include mergers provide competitive constraints on extrinsic parameters such as the sky position, as compared to results from rapidly spinning and precessing systems where the merger was not included. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, February 14, 2010 9:18AM - 9:30AM |
G14.00005: Selection biases of nonspinning searches for spinning binaries Andrew Lundgren, Duncan Brown, Richard O'Shaughnessy Current searches for compact binary mergers by ground-based detectors assume for simplicity that the two bodies are not spinning. If black holes (BHs) are rapidly spinning, this limitation significantly biases searches for realistic BH-BH and particularly BH-NS binaries. We present accurate fits for the range to which a binary can be seen by a single detector, accounting for both (i) its band-limited loudness along the line of sight, as a function of all combinations of masses and spins, and (ii) the best match between the real signal and nonspinning model waveform. We discuss the biases caused by these effects as well as physical and mathematical intuitions for the behavior of the signals. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, February 14, 2010 9:30AM - 9:42AM |
G14.00006: How well do harmonics and merger and ringdown signals improve parameter estimation? Evan Ochsner, Alessandra Buonanno, Yi Pan, B.S. Sathyaprakash It is now well-known that the inclusion of higher harmonics of the orbital phase in gravitational waveforms greatly improves the parameter estimation and distance reach of compact binaries for which the inspiral takes place in the sensitive band of interferometric gravitational-wave detectors. This is also true when the merger and ringdown portions of the waveform are included. In this work we use effective-one-body inspiral-merger-ringdown waveforms with higher harmonics to study the improvement in the estimation of source parameters over simpler inspiral waveforms which contain only the dominant harmonic. The implications for second and third generation ground-based gravitational-wave detectors will also be discussed. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, February 14, 2010 9:42AM - 9:54AM |
G14.00007: Detectability of Numerical Relativity Waveforms for Black Hole Binaries with Rotating Spins and Templateless Analyses Deirdre Shoemaker, Laura Cadonati, Sebastian Fischetti, James Healy, Satyanarayan Mohaptra, Dustin Burns Recent years have seen tremendous progress in numerical relativity and an ever improving performance of ground-based interferometric gravitational wave detectors. The numerical relativity and gravitational wave data analysis communities are collaborating to ascertain the most useful role for NR waveforms in the detection and characterization of binary black hole coalescence. We explore the particular case of detectability with algorithms designed for unmodeled (``burst'') waveforms for merging black hole binaries with rotating spins using NR waveforms. In this study, we present the detection systematics using waveforms produced by the MayaKranc code that are added to colored, Gaussian noise and analyzed with the Omega burst search algorithm (also used in LIGO-Virgo burst searches). Detection efficiency and parameter accuracy are systematically weighted against the rotation of one of the black-hole's spin axis as well as numerical details such as waveform accuracy, the number of gravitational wave cycles, the number of included modes and extraction radius. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, February 14, 2010 9:54AM - 10:06AM |
G14.00008: Characterizing Black Hole Mergers John Baker, William Darian Boggs, Bernard Kelly Binary black hole mergers are a promising source of gravitational waves for interferometric gravitational wave detectors. Recent advances in numerical relativity have revealed the predictions of General Relativity for the strong burst of radiation generated in the final moments of binary coalescence. We explore features in the merger radiation which characterize the final moments of merger and ringdown. Interpreting the waveforms in terms of an rotating implicit radiation source allows a unified phenomenological description of the system from inspiral through ringdown. Common features in the waveforms allow quantitative description of the merger signal which may provide insights for observations large-mass black hole binaries. [Preview Abstract] |
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