Intrinsic selection biases of ground-based gravitational wave searches for high-mass BH-BH mergers

Abstract

The next generation of ground-based gravitational wave detectors may detect a few mergers of comparable-mass M\simeq 100-1000 Msun ("intermediate-mass'', or IMBH) spinning black holes. Black hole spin is known to have a significant impact on the orbit, merger signal, and post-merger ringdown of any binary with non-negligible spin. In particular, the detection volume for spinning binaries depends significantly on the component black hole spins. We provide a fit to the single-detector and isotropic-network detection volume versus (total) mass and arbitrary spin for equal-mass binaries. Our analysis assumes matched filtering to all significant available waveform power (up to l=6 available for fitting, but only l<= 4 significant) estimated by an array of 64 numerical simulations with component spins as large as S_{1,2}/M^2 <= 0.8. We provide a spin-dependent estimate of our uncertainty, up to S_{1,2}/M^2 <= 1. For the initial (advanced) LIGO detector, our fits are reliable for $M\in [100,500]M_{\odot }$ ($M\in [100,1600]M_{\odot }$). In the online version of this article, we also provide fits assuming incomplete information, such as the neglect of higher-order harmonics. We briefly discuss how a strong selection bias towards aligned spins influences the interpretation of future gravitational wave detections of IMBH-IMBH mergers.

18 pages, 15 figures, accepted by PRD. v2 is version accepted for publication, including minor changes in response to referee feedback and updated citations

References in corpus (22)

• Phenomenological template family for black-hole coalescence waveforms
• High-accuracy waveforms for binary black hole inspiral, merger, and ringdown
• On the final spin from the coalescence of two black holes
• High-spin binary black hole mergers
• Effective-one-body waveforms calibrated to numerical relativity simulations: coalescence of non-precessing, spinning, equal-mass black holes
• The final spin from the coalescence of aligned-spin black-hole binaries
• The Total Merger Rate of Compact Object Binaries In The Local Universe
• Binary Black Holes: Spin Dynamics and Gravitational Recoil
• Circularization and Final Spin in Eccentric Binary Black Hole Inspirals
• Zoom-Whirl Orbits in Black Hole Binaries
• Comparison of Numerical and Post-Newtonian Waveforms for Generic Precessing Black-Hole Binaries
• Binary black hole late inspiral: Simulations for gravitational wave observations
• Observing IMBH-IMBH Binary Coalescences via Gravitational Radiation
• Matched Filtering of Numerical Relativity Templates of Spinning Binary Black Holes
• Superkicks in Hyperbolic Encounters of Binary Black Holes
• Binary black hole merger: symmetry and the spin expansion
• Final spins from the merger of precessing binary black holes
• Modelling the final state from binary black-hole coalescences
• Dynamical Interactions and the Black Hole Merger Rate of the Universe
• The spin expansion for binary black hole merger: new predictions and future directions
• Advances in Simulations of Generic Black-Hole Binaries
• Numerical Relativity meets Data Analysis: Spinning Binary Black Hole Case

Cited by in corpus (3)

• A Parameter Estimation Method that Directly Compares Gravitational Wave Observations to Numerical Relativity
• Precession during merger 1: Strong polarization changes are observationally accessible features of strong-field gravity during binary black hole merger
• Systematic challenges for future gravitational wave measurements of precessing binary black holes