Testing gravitational-wave searches with numerical relativity waveforms: results from the first Numerical INJection Analysis (NINJA) project

Abstract

The Numerical INJection Analysis (NINJA) project is a collaborative effort between members of the numerical relativity and gravitational-wave data analysis communities. The purpose of NINJA is to study the sensitivity of existing gravitational-wave search algorithms using numerically generated waveforms and to foster closer collaboration between the numerical relativity and data analysis communities. We describe the results of the first NINJA analysis which focused on gravitational waveforms from binary black hole coalescence. Ten numerical relativity groups contributed numerical data which were used to generate a set of gravitational-wave signals. These signals were injected into a simulated data set, designed to mimic the response of the initial LIGO and Virgo gravitational-wave detectors. Nine groups analysed this data using search and parameter-estimation pipelines. Matched filter algorithms, un-modelled-burst searches and Bayesian parameter estimation and modelselection algorithms were applied to the data. We report the efficiency of these search methods in detecting the numerical waveforms and measuring their parameters. We describe preliminary comparisons between the different search methods and suggest improvements for future NINJA analyses.

Sources of Gravitational Waves: Theory and Observations

“…Finally, new collaborative efforts have been established to coordinate activities between GW data analysts (or astronomers), numerical relativists and analytical relativists which have enabled testing of data analysis pipelines, production of a variety of NR simulations of binary BHs, and building of more robust models for use in searches and in extracting astrophysical information from the data [368][369][370][371].…”

Post-Newtonian templates for binary black-hole inspirals: the effect of the horizon fluxes and the secular change in the black-hole masses and spins

“…The above procedure yields TaylorT3 approximants: 24) where φ T3 ref is an integration constant and F T3 is the GW frequency of the dominant (2, 2) spin-weighted-spherical harmonic mode [recall (3.3)].…”

Approaching the Post-Newtonian Regime with Numerical Relativity: A Compact-Object Binary Simulation Spanning 350 Gravitational-Wave Cycles

“…Halving the symmetric mass ratio ν (e.g., from m 1 =m 2 ¼ 2 to m 1 =m 2 ¼ 7) doubles T. Increasing the simulation length T is difficult: it becomes harder to preserve phase coherency, the outer boundary of a simulation is in causal contact for a larger fraction of the simulation, and existing codes would require many months or even years of wall-clock time. Therefore, progress toward longer simulations has been sluggish, with T increasing by only about a factor of 2 to 3 during the last five years [28,29,[31][32][33]. The duration T needed to close the gap depends on the binary parameters and the detector bandwidth.…”