Systematic biases in parameter estimation of binary black-hole mergers

Littenberg, T. B.; Baker, John G.; Buonanno, A.; Kelly, Bernard

doi:10.1103/physrevd.87.104003

Cited by 66 publications

(101 citation statements)

References 128 publications

(207 reference statements)

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“…Those coefficients have been denoted adjustable or flexible parameters. In particular, EOB non-spinning waveforms (including the first four subdominant modes) have been developed with any mass ratio and shown to be indistinguishable from highly-accurate NR waveforms with mass ratios 1-6 up to SNRs of ∼ 50 [355]. Note, however, that current NR waveforms cover the full detector bandwidth only for binaries with total mass larger than M > ∼ 100M , thus those results are not yet conclusive.…”

Section: Interface Between Theory and Observationsmentioning

confidence: 79%

Sources of Gravitational Waves: Theory and Observations

Buonanno

Sathyaprakash²

2015

General Relativity and Gravitation

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Section: Interface Between Theory and Observationsmentioning

confidence: 79%

Sources of Gravitational Waves: Theory and Observations

Buonanno

Sathyaprakash²

2015

General Relativity and Gravitation

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“…We included only the dominant l = m = 2 mode of the gravitational wave signal in our simulations, as this is the only mode included in the SEOBNRv2 reduced order model. This omission means that our results can only serve as a conservative estimate of the parameter estimation performance for IMBHB systems, since the higher frequency harmonics of the signal can carry information to further constrain the signal model, especially at high masses [40][41][42]. Further development of ROMs to include both higher harmonics and spin is necessary to provide timely results with the best possible accuracy.…”

Section: Simulationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring Intermediate-Mass Black-Hole Binaries with Advanced Gravitational Wave Detectors

2015

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We perform a systematic study to explore the accuracy with which the parameters of intermediatemass black hole binary (IMBHB) systems can be measured from their gravitational wave (GW) signatures using second-generation GW detectors. We make use of the most recent reduced-order models containing inspiral, merger and ringdown signals of aligned-spin effective-one-body waveforms (SEOBNR) to significantly speed up the calculations. We explore the phenomenology of the measurement accuracies for binaries with total masses between 50 and 500 M and mass ratios between 0.1 and 1. We find that (i) at total masses below ∼ 200 M , where the signal-to-noise-ratio is dominated by the inspiral portion of the signal, the chirp mass parameter can be accurately measured; (ii) at higher masses, the information content is dominated by the ringdown, and total mass is measured more accurately; (iii) the mass of the lower-mass companion is poorly estimated, especially at high total mass and more extreme mass ratios; (iv) spin cannot be accurately measured for our injection set with non-spinning components. Most importantly, we find that for binaries with non-spinning components at all values of the mass ratio in the considered range and at network signal-to-noise ratio of 15, analyzed with spin-aligned templates, the presence of an intermediate-mass black hole with mass > 100 M can be confirmed with 95% confidence in any binary that includes a component with a mass of 130 M or greater.

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“…In Ref. [89], it was shown that for events with SNR<50 (applicable for LIGO), any bias in characterizing the GW events, introduced by the use of current waveforms, remains within the relevant statistical errors associated with the widths of the posterior distribution functions. More recently, in [90], it was also shown that even if the location on the sky and the distance to the binary are well known, either using an electromagnetic counterpart signal, or in the future by previous observations of the system [91] with eLISA [92], the accuracy in measuring the spins and masses of the binary BHs does not improve significantly.…”

Section: Figmentioning

confidence: 99%

Black hole mass function from gravitational wave measurements

et al. 2017

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We examine how future gravitational-wave measurements from merging black holes (BHs) can be used to infer the shape of the black-hole mass function, with important implications for the study of star formation and evolution and the properties of binary BHs. We model the mass function as a power law, inherited from the stellar initial mass function, and introduce lower and upper mass cutoff parameterizations in order to probe the minimum and maximum BH masses allowed by stellar evolution, respectively. We initially focus on the heavier BH in each binary, to minimize model dependence. Taking into account the experimental noise, the mass measurement errors and the uncertainty in the redshift-dependence of the merger rate, we show that the mass function parameters, as well as the total rate of merger events, can be measured to < 10% accuracy within a few years of advanced LIGO observations at its design sensitivity. This can be used to address important open questions such as the upper limit on the stellar mass which allows for BH formation and to confirm or refute the currently observed mass gap between neutron stars and BHs. In order to glean information on the progenitors of the merging BH binaries, we then advocate the study of the two-dimensional mass distribution to constrain parameters that describe the two-body system, such as the mass ratio between the two BHs, in addition to the merger rate and mass function parameters. We argue that several years of data collection can efficiently probe models of binary formation, and show, as an example, that the hypothesis that some gravitational-wave events may involve primordial black holes can be tested. Finally, we point out that in order to maximize the constraining power of the data, it may be worthwhile to lower the signal-to-noise threshold imposed on each candidate event and amass a larger statistical ensemble of BH mergers.

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Systematic biases in parameter estimation of binary black-hole mergers

Cited by 66 publications

References 128 publications

Sources of Gravitational Waves: Theory and Observations

Sources of Gravitational Waves: Theory and Observations

Measuring Intermediate-Mass Black-Hole Binaries with Advanced Gravitational Wave Detectors

Black hole mass function from gravitational wave measurements

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