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The Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo gravitational wave detectors have detected a population of binary black hole mergers in their first two observing runs. For each of these events, we have been able to associate a potential sky location region represented as a probability distribution on the sky. Thus, at this point we may begin to ask the question of whether this distribution agrees with the isotropic model of the Universe, or if there is any evidence of anisotropy. We perform Bayesian model selection between an isotropic and a simple anisotropic model, taking into account the anisotropic selection function caused by the underlying antenna patterns and sensitivity of the interferometers over the sidereal day. We find an inconclusive Bayes factor of 1.3: 1, suggesting that the data from the first two observing runs are insufficient to pick a preferred model. However, the first detections were mostly poorly localized in the sky (before the Advanced Virgo joined the network), spanning large portions of the sky and hampering detection of potential anisotropy. It will be appropriate to repeat this analysis with events from the recent third LIGO observational run and a more sophisticated cosmological model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a novel methodology to select host galaxy candidates of future pulsar timing array (PTA) detections of resolved gravitational waves (GWs) from massive black hole binaries (MBHBs). The method exploits the physical dependence of the GW amplitude on the MBHB chirp mass and distance to the observer, together with empirical MBH mass–host galaxy correlations, to rank potential host galaxies in the mass–redshift plane. This is coupled to a null-stream-based likelihood evaluation of the GW amplitude and sky position in a Bayesian framework that assigns to each galaxy a probability of hosting the MBHB generating the GW signal. We test our algorithm on a set of realistic simulations coupling the likely properties of the first PTA resolved GW signal to synthetic all-sky galaxy maps. For a foreseeable PTA sky-localization precision of 100 deg2, we find that the GW source is hosted with |$50\,{\rm {per \, cent}}\,\,(90\,{\rm {per \, cent}}$|⁠) probability within a restricted number of ≲50(≲500) potential hosts. These figures are orders of magnitude smaller than the total number of galaxies within the PTA sky error-box, enabling extensive electromagnetic follow-up campaigns on a limited number of targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coalescing compact binaries emitting gravitational wave (GW) signals, as recently detected by the Advanced LIGO–Virgo network, constitute a population over the multidimensional space of component masses and spins, redshift, and other parameters. Characterizing this population is a major goal of GW observations and may be approached via parametric models. We demonstrate hierarchical inference for such models with a method that accounts for uncertainties in each binary merger's individual parameters, for mass-dependent selection effects, and also for the presence of a second population of candidate events caused by detector noise. Thus, the method is robust to potential biases from a contaminated sample and allows us to extract information from events that have a relatively small probability of astrophysical origin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supermassive black hole binaries are expected to produce a gravitational wave (GW) signal in the nano-Hertz frequency band which may be detected by Pulsar Timing Arrays (PTAs) in the coming years. The signal is composed of both stochastic and individually resolvable components. Here, we develop a generic Bayesian method for the analysis of resolvable sources based on the construction of 'null streams' which cancel the part of the signal held in common for each pulsar (the Earth term). For an array of N pulsars there are N -- 2 independent null streams that cancel the GW signal from a particular sky location. This method is applied to the localization of quasi-circular binaries undergoing adiabatic inspiral.We carry out a systematic investigation of the scaling of the localization accuracy with signal strength and number of pulsars in the PTA. Additionally, we find that source sky localization with the International PTA data release one is vastly superior than what is achieved by its constituent regional PTAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivated by the preponderance of so-called 'heavy black holes' in the binary black hole (BBH) gravitational wave (GW) detections to date, and the role that gravitational lensing continues to play in discovering new galaxy populations, we explore the possibility that the GWs are strongly lensed by massive galaxy clusters. For example, if one of the GW sources were actually located at z=1, then the rest-frame mass of the associated BHswould be reduced by a factor of ~2. Based on the known populations of BBH GW sources and strong-lensing clusters, we estimate a conservative lower limit on the number of BBH mergers detected per detector year at LIGO/Virgo's current sensitivity that are multiply-imaged, of Rdetect ~10-5 yr-1. This is equivalent to rejecting the hypothesis that one of the BBH GWs detected to date was multiply-imaged at ≲4σ. It is therefore unlikely, but not impossible, that one of the GWs is multiply-imaged. We identify three spectroscopically confirmed strong-lensing clusters with well-constrained mass models within the 90 per cent credible sky localizations of the BBH GWs from LIGO's first observing run. In the event that one of these clusters multiply-imaged one of the BBH GWs, we predict that 20-60 per cent of the putative next appearances of the GWs would be detectable by LIGO, and that they would arrive at Earth within 3yr of first detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent advanced LIGO detections of gravitational waves from merging binary black holes enhance the prospect of exploring binary evolution via gravitational-wave observations of a population of compact-object binaries. In the face of uncertainty about binary formation models, model-independent inference provides an appealing alternative to comparisons between observed and modelled populations. We describe a procedure for clustering in the multidimensional parameter space of observations that are subject to significant measurement errors. We apply this procedure to a mock data set of population-synthesis predictions for the masses of merging compact binaries convolved with realistic measurement uncertainties, and demonstrate that we can accurately distinguish subpopulations of binary neutron stars, binary black holes, and mixed neutron star-black hole binaries with tens of observations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gravitational waves from coalescences of neutron stars or stellar-mass black holes into intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) of ≳100 solar masses represent one of the exciting possible sources for advanced gravitational-wave detectors. These sources can provide definitive evidence for the existence of IMBHs, probe globular-cluster dynamics, and potentially serve as tests of general relativity. We analyse the accuracy with which we can measure the masses and spins of the IMBH and its companion in intermediate-mass-ratio coalescences. We find that we can identify an IMBH with a mass above 100 M⊙ with 95 per cent confidence provided the massive body exceeds 130 M⊙. For source masses above ∼200 M⊙, the best measured parameter is the frequency of the quasi-normal ringdown. Consequently, the total mass is measured better than the chirp mass for massive binaries, but the total mass is still partly degenerate with spin, which cannot be accurately measured. Low-frequency detector sensitivity is particularly important for massive sources, since sensitivity to the inspiral phase is critical for measuring the mass of the stellar-mass companion. We show that we can accurately infer source parameters for cosmologically redshifted signals by applying appropriate corrections. We investigate the impact of uncertainty in the model gravitational waveforms and conclude that our main results are likely robust to systematics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]