Gravitational waves from BH-NS binaries: Effective Fisher matrices and parameter estimation using higher harmonics

Abstract

Inspiralling black hole-neutron star (BH-NS) 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 interferometers (e.g., the rate of change of frequency); others less so (e.g., the polarization content); and others 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 BH-NS binaries and for plausible signal amplitudes, we see that higher harmonics at best marginally improve our ability to measure parameters. For non-precessing 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.

19 pages, 11 figures

References in corpus (39)

• Gravitational Waves from Mergin Compact Binaries: How Accurately Can One Extract the Binary's Parameters from the Inspiral Waveform?
• Coalescing binary systems of compact objects to (post)$^{5/2}-Newtonian order. V. Spin Effects
• Detection, Measurement and Gravitational Radiation
• Comparison of post-Newtonian templates for compact binary inspiral signals in gravitational-wave detectors
• Use and Abuse of the Fisher Information Matrix in the Assessment of Gravitational-Wave Parameter-Estimation Prospects
• FINDCHIRP: an algorithm for detection of gravitational waves from inspiraling compact binaries
• Gravitational waves from inspiralling compact binaries: Parameter estimation using second-post-Newtonian waveforms
• Gravitational radiation from compact binary systems: gravitational waveforms and energy loss to second post-Newtonian order
• Higher-order spin effects in the amplitude and phase of gravitational waveforms emitted by inspiraling compact binaries: Ready-to-use gravitational waveforms
• Detector Description and Performance for the First Coincidence Observations between LIGO and GEO
• A Comparison of search templates for gravitational waves from binary inspiral
• Detecting gravitational waves from precessing binaries of spinning compact objects: Adiabatic limit
• LISA detections of massive black hole inspirals: parameter extraction errors due to inaccurate template waveforms
• Measuring coalescing massive binary black holes with gravitational waves: The impact of spin-induced precession
• Phasing of gravitational waves from inspiralling eccentric binaries
• Search for gravitational waves from binary inspirals in S3 and S4 LIGO data
• Search for Gravitational Waves from Low Mass Binary Coalescences in the First Year of LIGO's S5 Data
• Comparisons of eccentric binary black hole simulations with post-Newtonian models
• Comparison between numerical-relativity and post-Newtonian waveforms from spinning binaries: the orbital hang-up case
• Post-Newtonian accurate parametric solution to the dynamics of spinning compact binaries in eccentric orbits: The leading order spin-orbit interaction
• Phasing of gravitational waves from inspiralling eccentric binaries at the third-and-a-half post-Newtonian order
• A physical template family for gravitational waves from precessing binaries of spinning compact objects: Application to single-spin binaries
• Gravitational-Wave Data Analysis. Formalism and Sample Applications: The Gaussian Case
• Estimating the parameters of non-spinning binary black holes using ground-based gravitational-wave detectors: Statistical errors
• Efficient asymptotic frame selection for binary black hole spacetimes using asymptotic radiation
• Binary black hole spectroscopy
• A quasi-physical family of gravity-wave templates for precessing binaries of spinning compact objects: Application to double-spin precessing binaries
• The Effect of Higher Harmonic Corrections on the Detection of massive black hole binaries with LISA
• Effect of gravitational radiation reaction on circular orbits around a spinning black hole
• Beyond Fisher: exact sampling distributions of the maximum-likelihood estimator in gravitational-wave parameter estimation
• Measuring parameters of massive black hole binaries with partially aligned spins
• Nonspinning searches for spinning binaries in ground-based detector data: Amplitude and mismatch predictions in the constant precession cone approximation
• Higher harmonics increase LISA's mass reach for supermassive black holes
• Detecting gravitational waves from precessing binaries of spinning compact objects. II. Search implementation for low-mass binaries
• Parameter estimation for coalescing massive binary black holes with LISA using the full 2-post-Newtonian gravitational waveform and spin-orbit precession
• Characterizing Spinning Black Hole Binaries in Eccentric Orbits with LISA
• Parameter estimation from Gravitational waves generated by non-spinning binary black holes with laser interferometers: beyond the Fisher information
• Accurate and efficient gravitational waveforms for certain galactic compact binaries
• Is J enough? Comparison of gravitational waves emitted along the total angular momentum direction with other preferred orientations

Cited by in corpus (61)

• Are merging black holes born from stellar collapse or previous mergers?
• Matter effects on binary neutron star waveforms
• Systematic and statistical errors in a bayesian approach to the estimation of the neutron-star equation of state using advanced gravitational wave detectors
• Reconstructing phenomenological distributions of compact binaries via gravitational wave observations
• Directly comparing GW150914 with numerical solutions of Einstein's equations for binary black hole coalescence
• Measuring the spin of black holes in binary systems using gravitational waves
• Multi-timescale analysis of phase transitions in precessing black-hole binaries
• A novel scheme for rapid parallel parameter estimation of gravitational waves from compact binary coalescences
• The RIT binary black hole simulations catalog
• Low-Latency Gravitational Wave Alerts for Multi-Messenger Astronomy During the Second Advanced LIGO and Virgo Observing Run
• Gravitational-wave observations of binary black holes: Effect of non-quadrupole modes
• Inadequacies of the Fisher Information Matrix in gravitational-wave parameter estimation
• The Missing Link: Bayesian Detection and Measurement of Intermediate-Mass Black-Hole Binaries
• Explaining LIGO's observations via isolated binary evolution with natal kicks
• Modeling the source of GW150914 with targeted numerical-relativity simulations
• A Parameter Estimation Method that Directly Compares Gravitational Wave Observations to Numerical Relativity
• The second RIT binary black hole simulations catalog and its application to gravitational waves parameter estimation
• Comparing gravitational waves from nonprecessing and precessing black hole binaries in the corotating frame
• The Third RIT binary black hole simulations catalog
• Measurement Accuracy of Inspiraling Eccentric Neutron Star and Black Hole Binaries Using Gravitational Waves
• Probing the Internal Composition of Neutron Stars with Gravitational Waves
• Parameter Estimation of Gravitational Waves from Precessing BH-NS Inspirals with higher harmonics
• Parameter estimation on compact binary coalescences with abruptly terminating gravitational waveforms
• Distinguishing black-hole spin-orbit resonances by their gravitational-wave signatures
• A Machine Learning Based Source Property Inference for Compact Binary Mergers
• Measuring precession in asymmetric compact binaries
• Advanced LIGO's ability to detect apparent violations of the cosmic censorship conjecture and the no-hair theorem through compact binary coalescence detections
• A single-spin precessing gravitational wave in closed form
• Parameter Estimation of Gravitational Waves from Nonprecessing BH-NS Inspirals with higher harmonics: Comparing MCMC posteriors to an Effective Fisher Matrix
• Measuring the spins of heavy binary black holes
• Distinguishing black-hole spin-orbit resonances by their gravitational wave signatures. II: Full parameter estimation
• A more effective coordinate system for parameter estimation of precessing compact binaries from gravitational waves
• New effective precession spin for modeling multimodal gravitational waveforms in the strong-field regime
• Nonspinning black hole-neutron star mergers: a model for the amplitude of gravitational waveforms
• Systematic Biases in Estimating the Properties of Black Holes Due to Inaccurate Gravitational-Wave Models
• Inspiral of a Spinning Black Hole--Magnetized Neutron Star Binary: Increasing Charge and Electromagnetic Emission
• Assessing and marginalizing over compact binary coalescence waveform systematics with RIFT
• Application of the effective Fisher matrix to the frequency domain inspiral waveforms
• Comparing compact binary parameter distributions I: Methods
• Systematic bias due to eccentricity in parameter estimation for merging binary neutron stars
• Investigating the effect of in-plane spin directions for Precessing BBH systems
• Synergy between ground and space based gravitational wave detectors II: Localisation
• Probing evolution of binaries influenced by the spin-orbit resonances
• Gravitational Wave Beacons
• Parameter estimation of neutron star-black hole binaries using an advanced gravitational-wave detector network: Effects of the full post-Newtonian waveform
• Rapid gravitational wave parameter estimation with a single spin: Systematic uncertainties in parameter estimation with the SpinTaylorF2 approximation
• Improvement of the parameter measurement accuracy by the third-generation gravitational wave detector Einstein Telescope
• Parameter estimation using a complete signal and inspiral templates for low mass binary black holes with Advanced LIGO sensitivity
• Black Hole Gravitational Potential Enhanced Fallback Accretion onto the Nascent Lighter Compact Object: Tentative Evidence in the O3 Run Data of LIGO/Virgo
• Efficient method for measuring the parameters encoded in a gravitational-wave signal
• Measurement of Tidal Deformability in the Gravitational Wave Parameter Estimation for Nonspinning Binary Neutron Star Mergers
• Efficiency of nonspinning templates in gravitational wave searches for aligned-spin binary black holes
• Gravitational Wave Searches for Aligned-Spin Binary Neutron Stars Using Nonspinning Templates
• Accuracy in Measuring the Neutron Star Mass in Gravitational Wave Parameter Estimation for Black Hole-Neutron Star Binaries
• Systematic Bias Due to Nonspinning Template Waveforms in the Gravitational Wave Parameter Estimation for Aligned-Spin Binary Black Holes
• Measurability of neutron star tidal deformability from merging neutron star-black hole binaries
• Inferences about the distribution, merger rate, and evolutionary processes of compact binaries from gravitational wave observations
• Characterizing Compact-object Binaries in the Lower Mass Gap with Gravitational Waves
• Limitations in constraining neutron star radii and nuclear properties from inspiral gravitational wave detections
• Systematic bias due to eccentricity in parameter estimation for merging binary neutron stars : Spinning case
• Extracting the orbital axis from gravitational waves of precessing binary systems