Search

Precessing black hole-neutron star (BH-NS) binaries produce a rich gravitational wave signal, encoding the binary's nature and inspirai kinematics. Using the lalinference_mcmc Markov chain Monte Carlo parameter estimation code, we use two fiducial examples to illustrate how the geometry and kinematics are encoded into the modulated gravitational wave signal, using coordinates well adapted to precession. Extending previous work, we demonstrate that the performance of detailed parameter estimation studies can often be estimated by "effective" studies: comparisons of a prototype signal with its nearest neighbors, adopting a fixed sky location and idealized two-detector network. Using a concrete example, we show that higher harmonics provide nonzero but small local improvement when estimating the parameters of precessing BH-NS binaries. We also show that higher harmonics can improve parameter estimation accuracy for precessing binaries by breaking leading-order discrete symmetries and thus ruling out approximately degenerate source orientations. Our work illustrates quantities gravitational wave mea-surements can provide, such as the orientation of a precessing short gamma ray burst progenitor relative to the line of sight. More broadly, "effective" estimates may provide a simple way to estimate trends in the performance of parameter estimation for generic precessing BH-NS binaries in next-generation detectors. For example, our results suggest that the orbital chirp rate, precession rate, and precession geometry are roughly independent observables, defining natural variables to organize correlations in the high-dimensional BH-NS binary parameter space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most calculations of the gravitational wave signal from merging compact binaries limit attention to the leading-order quadrupole when constructing models for detection or parameter estimation. Some studies have claimed that if additional "higher harmonics" are included consistently in the gravitational wave signal and search model, binary parameters can be measured much more precisely. Using the lalinference Markov-chain Monte Carlo parameter estimation code, we construct posterior parameter constraints associated with two distinct nonprecessing black hole-neutron star (BH-NS) binaries, each with and without higher-order harmonics. All simulations place a plausible signal into a three-detector network with Gaussian noise. Our simulations suggest that higher harmonics provide little information, principally allowing us to measure a previously unconstrained angle associated with the source geometry well but otherwise improving knowledge of all other parameters by a few percent for our loud fiducial signal (?=20). Even at this optimistic signal amplitude, different noise realizations have a more significant impact on parameter accuracy than higher harmonics. We compare our results with the "effective Fisher matrix" introduced previously as a method to obtain robust analytic predictions for complicated signals with multiple significant harmonics. We find generally good agreement with these predictions, confirm that intrinsic parameter measurement accuracy is nearly independent of detector network geometry, and show that uncertainties in extrinsic and intrinsic parameters can, to a good approximation, be separated. For our fiducial example, the individual masses can be determined to lie between 7.11-11.48M⊙ and 1.77-1.276M⊙ at greater than 99% confidence level, accounting for unknown BH spin. Assuming comparable control over waveform systematics, measurements of BH-NS binaries can constrain the BH and perhaps NS mass distributions. Using analytic arguments to guide extrapolation, we anticipate that higher harmonics should provide little new information about nonprecessing BH-NS binaries, for the signal amplitudes expected for the first few detections. Though our study focused on one particular example--higher harmomics--any study of subdominant degrees of freedom in gravitational wave astronomy can adopt the tools presented here (V/Vprior and DKL) to assess whether new physics is accessible (e.g., modifications of gravity, spin-orbit misalignment) and if so precisely what information those new parameters provide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sensitivity of searches for astrophysical transients in data from the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) is generally limited by the presence of transient, non-Gaussian noise artifacts, which occur at a high enough rate such that accidental coincidence across multiple detectors is non-negligible. These "glitches" can easily be mistaken for transient gravitational-wave signals, and their robust identification and removal will help any search for astrophysical gravitational waves. We apply machine-learning algorithms (MLAs) to the problem, using data from auxiliary channels within the LIGO detectors that monitor degrees of freedom unaffected by astrophysical signals. Noise sources may produce artifacts in these auxiliary channels as well as the gravitational-wave channel. The number of auxiliary-channel parameters describing these disturbances may also be extremely large; high dimensionality is an area where MLAs are particularly well suited. We demonstrate the feasibility and applicability of three different MLAs: artificial neural networks, support vector machines, and random forests. These classifiers identify and remove a substantial fraction of the glitches present in two different data sets: four weeks of LIGO's fourth science run and one week of LIGO's sixth science run. We observe that all three algorithms agree on which events are glitches to within 10% for the sixth-science-run data, and support this by showing that the different optimization criteria used by each classifier generate the same decision surface, based on a likelihood-ratio statistic. Furthermore, we find that all classifiers obtain similar performance to the benchmark algorithm, the ordered veto list, which is optimized to detect pairwise correlations between transients in LIGO auxiliary channels and glitches in the gravitational-wave data. This suggests that most of the useful information currently extracted from the auxiliary channels is already described by this model. Future performance gains are thus likely to involve additional sources of information, rather than improvements in the classification algorithms themselves. We discuss several plausible sources of such new information as well as the ways of propagating it through the classifiers into gravitational-wave searches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inspiralling black hole-neutron star binaries emit a complicated gravitational wave signature, produced by multiple harmonics sourced by their strong local gravitational field and further modulated by the orbital plane's precession. Some features of this complex signal are easily accessible to ground-based interfero- meters (e.g., the rate of change of frequency), others less so (e.g., the polarization content), and others still are unavailable (e.g., features of the signal out of band). For this reason, an ambiguity function (a diagnostic of dissimilarity) between two such signals varies on many parameter scales and ranges. In this paper, we present a method for computing an approximate, effective Fisher matrix from variations in the ambiguity function on physically pertinent scales which depend on the relevant signal-to-noise ratio. As a concrete example, we explore how higher harmonics improve parameter measurement accuracy. As previous studies suggest, for our fiducial black hole-neutron star binaries and for plausible signal amplitudes, we see that higher harmonics at best marginally improve our ability to measure parameters. For nonprecessing binaries, these Fisher matrices separate into intrinsic (mass, spin) and extrinsic (geometrical) parameters; higher harmonics principally improve our knowledge about the line of sight. For the precessing binaries, the extra information provided by higher harmonics is distributed across several parameters. We provide concrete estimates for measurement accuracy, using coordinates adapted to the precession cone in the detector's sensitive band. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]