Accuracy in Measuring the Neutron Star Mass in Gravitational Wave Parameter Estimation for Black Hole-Neutron Star Binaries

Abstract

Recently, two gravitational wave (GW) signals, named as GW150914 and GW151226, have been detected by the two LIGO detectors. Although both signals were identified as originating from merging black hole (BH) binaries, GWs from systems containing neutron stars (NSs) are also expected to be detected in the near future by the Advanced detector network. In this work, we assess the accuracy in measuring the NS mass ($M_{ns}$) for the GWs from BH-NS binaries adopting the Advanced LIGO sensitivity with a signal-to-noise ratio of 10. By using the Fisher matrix method, we calculate the measurement errors ($\sigma$) in $M_{ns}$ assuming the NS mass of $1\le M_{ns}/M_{\odot }\le 2$ and low mass BHs with the range of $4\le M_{bh}/M_{\odot }\le 10$. We used the TaylorF2 waveform model where the spins are aligned with the orbital angular momentum, but here we only consider the BH spins. We find that the fractional errors ($\sigma /M_{ns}\times 100$) are in the range of $10\%-50\%$ in our mass region for a given dimensionless BH spin as ${\chi }_{bh}=0$. The errors tend to increase as the BH spin increases, and this tendency is stronger for higher NS masses (or higher total masses). In particular, for the highest mass NSs ($M_{ns}=2M_{\odot }$), the errors $\sigma$ can be larger than the true value of $M_{ns}$ if the dimensionless BH spin exceeds $\sim 0.6$.

arXiv comment5 pages, 2 figures, submitted to JKPS

References in corpus (38)

• Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger
• Shapiro delay measurement of a two solar mass neutron star
• A Massive Pulsar in a Compact Relativistic Binary
• GW151226: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a 22-Solar-Mass Binary Black Hole Coalescence
• Gravitational Waves from Mergin Compact Binaries: How Accurately Can One Extract the Binary's Parameters from the Inspiral Waveform?
• Neutron Star Observations: Prognosis for Equation of State Constraints
• Predictions for the Rates of Compact Binary Coalescences Observable by Ground-based Gravitational-wave Detectors
• Frequency-domain gravitational waves from non-precessing black-hole binaries. II. A phenomenological model for the advanced detector era
• Properties of the Binary Black Hole Merger GW150914
• A simple model of complete precessing black-hole-binary gravitational waveforms
• Detection, Measurement and Gravitational Radiation
• Use and Abuse of the Fisher Information Matrix in the Assessment of Gravitational-Wave Parameter-Estimation Prospects
• Inspiral-merger-ringdown waveforms for black-hole binaries with non-precessing spins
• Gravitational waves from inspiralling compact binaries: Parameter estimation using second-post-Newtonian waveforms
• Matching post-Newtonian and numerical relativity waveforms: systematic errors and a new phenomenological model for non-precessing black hole binaries
• Double Compact Objects III: Gravitational Wave Detection Rates
• A template bank for gravitational waveforms from coalescing binary black holes: non-spinning binaries
• Higher-order spin effects in the amplitude and phase of gravitational waveforms emitted by inspiraling compact binaries: Ready-to-use gravitational waveforms
• Phenomenological template family for black-hole coalescence waveforms
• Measuring coalescing massive binary black holes with gravitational waves: The impact of spin-induced precession
• Parameter estimation for compact binary coalescence signals with the first generation gravitational-wave detector network
• Parameter estimation for binary neutron-star coalescences with realistic noise during the Advanced LIGO era
• When can gravitational-wave observations distinguish between black holes and neutron stars?
• Search for Gravitational Waves from Binary Black Hole Inspiral, Merger and Ringdown in LIGO-Virgo Data from 2009-2010
• Implications of PSR J0737-3039B for the Galactic NS-NS Binary Merger Rate
• Inadequacies of the Fisher Information Matrix in gravitational-wave parameter estimation
• Gravitational waves from BH-NS binaries: Effective Fisher matrices and parameter estimation using higher harmonics
• Gravitational-wave data analysis using binary black-hole waveforms
• Spin-Precession: Breaking the Black Hole--Neutron Star Degeneracy
• Neutron stars versus black holes: probing the mass gap with LIGO/Virgo
• Distinguishing types of compact-object binaries using the gravitational-wave signatures of their mergers
• Parameter Estimation of Gravitational Waves from Precessing BH-NS Inspirals with higher harmonics
• Parameter estimation on compact binary coalescences with abruptly terminating gravitational waveforms
• Parameter Estimation of Gravitational Waves from Nonprecessing BH-NS Inspirals with higher harmonics: Comparing MCMC posteriors to an Effective Fisher Matrix
• Parameter estimation for coalescing massive binary black holes with LISA using the full 2-post-Newtonian gravitational waveform and spin-orbit precession
• Application of the effective Fisher matrix to the frequency domain inspiral waveforms
• Parameter estimation using a complete signal and inspiral templates for low mass binary black holes with Advanced LIGO sensitivity
• Testing the validity of the phenomenological gravitational waveform models for nonspinning binary black hole searches at low masses

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Efficiency of nonspinning templates in gravitational wave searches for aligned-spin binary black holes
• Systematic Bias Due to Nonspinning Template Waveforms in the Gravitational Wave Parameter Estimation for Aligned-Spin Binary Black Holes