MG12 - Talk detail
 

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"Complete" gravitational-waveform templates for black-hole binaries with non-precessing spins

We present the first ready-to-use analytical template family of "complete" inspiral-merger-ringdown waveforms to search for gravitational-wave signals from black-hole binaries with non-precessing spins. By matching a post-Newtonian description of the inspiral to a set of numerical calculations performed in full general relativity, we obtain a template family with a conveniently small number of physical parameters (total mass, symmetric mass ratio and total spin). Our phenomenological model recovers by construction the test-particle limit of the inspiral phase. We show that these waveforms are "effectual" in detection of the larger parameter space of black-hole-binary coalescence and "faithful" in estimating the parameters.

Estimating the parameters of non-spinning binary black holes using ground-based gravitational-wave detectors: Statistical errors

We assess the statistical errors in estimating the parameters of non-spinning black-hole binaries using ground-based gravitational-wave detectors. While past assessments were based on partial information provided by only the inspiral and / or ring-down pieces of the coalescence signal, the recent progress in analytical and numerical relativity enables us to make more accurate projections using "complete" inspiral-merger-ringdown waveforms. We employ the Fisher information-matrix formalism to estimate how accurately the source parameters will be measurable using a single detector as well as a network of interferometers. Those estimates are further vetted by full-fledged Monte-Carlo simulations. We find that the parameter accuracies of the complete waveform are, in general, significantly better than those of just the inspiral waveform in the case of binaries with total mass M > 20 M_sun. For binaries located at a fixed luminosity distance d_L, and observed with the Advanced LIGO--Advanced Virgo network, the average value of the sky-poisitioning error is nearly a tenth of a square-degree. The error in d_L is dominated by the error in measuring the wave's polarization and is roughly 43% for low-mass binaries and about 23% for high-mass binaries located at d_L=1 Gpc.

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