Template bank for gravitational waveforms from coalescing binary black holes: Nonspinning binaries

Document #:

LIGO-P070111-x0

Document type:

P - Publications

Abstract:

Gravitational waveforms from the inspiral and ring-down stages of the binary black-hole coalescences can be modeled accurately by approximation/perturbation techniques in general relativity. Recent progress in numerical relativity has enabled us to model also the nonperturbative merger phase of the binary black-hole coalescence problem. This enables us to coherently search for all three stages of the coalescence of nonspinning binary black holes using a single template bank. Taking our motivation from these results, we propose a family of template waveforms which can model the inspiral, merger, and ring-down stages of the coalescence of nonspinning binary black holes that follow quasicircular inspiral. This two-dimensional template family is explicitly parametrized by the physical parameters of the binary. We show that the template family is not only effectual in detecting the signals from black-hole coalescences, but also faithful in estimating the parameters of the binary. We compare the sensitivity of a search (in the context of different ground-based interferometers) using all three stages of the black-hole coalescence with other template-based searches which look for individual stages separately. We find that the proposed search is significantly more sensitive than other template-based searches for a substantial mass range, potentially bringing about remarkable improvement in the event rate of ground-based interferometers. As part of this work, we also prescribe a general procedure to construct interpolated template banks using nonspinning black-hole waveforms produced by numerical relativity.

Files in Document:

• P070111-00.pdf (1.0 MB)

Other Files:

• P070111-P.pdf (2.1 MB)

Topics:

• Document Migration from the old DCC
• Public relations

Authors:

• Badri Krishnan
• Sascha Husa
• Alicia M Sintes
• Martin Hewitson
• John Whelan
• Stanislav Babak
• Yanbei Chen
• P Ajith
• B Brugmann
• P Diener
• N Dorband
• Joe Gonzalez
• M Hannam
• D Pollney
• Luciano Rezzolla
• Lucia Santamaria Lara
• U Sperhake
• J Thornburg

Notes and Changes:

Rev P070111-00-Z:
- Full document number: LIGO-P070111-00-Z
- Author(s): P. Ajith; Stas Babak; Yanbei Chen; Martin Hewitson; B. Krishnan; Alicia M. Sintes; John T. Whelan; B Brugmann; P Diener; N Dorband; Joe Gonzalez; M Hannam; S Husa; D Pollney; Luciano Rezzolla; L Santamaria; U Sperhake; J Thornburg
- Document date: 2007-10-01
- Document received date: 2007-10-01
- Document entry date: 2007-10-01

Journal References:

Published in Phys Rev D vol. 77 pg. 104017 (22pp).