MG11 
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Abstract

Detecting gravitational wave signal from extreme mass ratio inspirals.

One of the most exciting potential sources of gravitational waves for the proposed space-based gravitational wave detector LISA is the inspiral of compact ob jects into supermassive black holes in the centres of galaxies. The extreme mass ratio typical in these systems means that the gravitational waveforms can be determined accurately using black hole perturbation theory. However, such calculations are computationally very expensive. There is a need for families of approximate waveforms that may be generated cheaply and quickly but which still capture the main features of true waveforms. In this talk we will overview different ways of generating such waveforms and compare them. We will also discuss their use in data analysis algorithms.

LISA Mock Data Challenge

At the last LISA International Science Team (LIST) meeting the Working Group on Data Analysis has established a taskforce to organize several rounds of mock data challenges, with the dual purpose of fostering the development of LISA data analysis tools and capabilities, and of demonstrating the technical readiness already achieved by the gravitational-wave community in distilling a rich science payoff from the LISA data output. Here in my talk I will give the details of the first mock data challenge which was announced at the LISA symposium in June 2006. I will also overview the future sets of challenges which will be released starting at the end of this year.