Systematic errors in measuring parameters of non-spinning compact binary coalescences with post-Newtonian templates

DOI10.1088/0264-9381/27/11/114001zbMATH Open1255.83048arXiv1207.3361OpenAlexW2057820847MaRDI QIDQ3575103FDOQ3575103

Authors: Sukanta Bose, Shaon Ghosh, Parameswaran Ajith 

Publication date: 7 July 2010

Published in: Classical and Quantum Gravity (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: We study the astrophysical impact of inaccurate and incomplete modeling of the gravitational waveforms from compact binary coalescences (CBCs). We do so by the matched filtering of complete inspiral-merger-ringdown (IMR) signals with a bank of inspiral-phase templates modeled after the 3.5 post-Newtonian TaylorT1 approximant. The rationale for the choice of the templates is threefold: (1) The inspiral phase of the Phenomenological signals, which are an example of complete IMR signals, is modeled on the same TaylorT1 approximant. (2) In the low-mass limit, where the merger and ringdown phases last much shorter than the inspiral phase, the errors should tend to vanishingly small values and, thus, provide an important check on the numerical aspects of our simulations. (3) Since the binary black hole (BBH) signals are not yet known for mass-ratios above ten and since signals from CBCs involving neutron stars are affected by uncertainties in the knowledge of their equation of state, inspiral templates are still in use in searches for those signals. The results from our numerical simulations are compared with analytical calculations of the systematic errors using the Fisher matrix on the template parameter space. We find that the loss in signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) can be as large as 60% even for binary black holes with component masses m1 = 13Modot and m2 = 20Modot. Also, the estimated total-mass for the same pair can be off by as much as 20%. Both of these are worse for some higher-mass combinations. Even the estimation of the symmetric mass-ratio {eta} suffers a nearly 20% error for this example, and can be worse than 50% for the mass ranges studied here. These errors significantly dominate their statistical counterparts (at a nominal SNR of 10). It may, however, be possible to mitigate the loss in SNR by allowing for templates with unphysical values of {eta}.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1207.3361

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zbMATH Keywords

black holesgravitational waves

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Applications of statistics to physics (62P35) Galactic and stellar dynamics (85A05) Approximation procedures, weak fields in general relativity and gravitational theory (83C25) Black holes (83C57) Gravitational waves (83C35)

Cited In (4)

• Searching for gravitational-wave signals emitted by eccentric compact binaries using a non-eccentric template bank: implications for ground-based detectors
• Parameter estimation of inspiralling compact binaries in ground-based detectors: comparison between Monte Carlo simulations and the Fisher information matrix
• Parameter estimation on compact binary coalescences with abruptly terminating gravitational waveforms
• Compact binary coalescence parameter estimations for 2.5 post-Newtonian aligned spinning waveforms

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