Detecting binary compact-object mergers with gravitational waves: Understanding and Improving the sensitivity of the PyCBC search

Abstract

We present an improved search for binary compact-object mergers using a network of ground-based gravitational-wave detectors. We model a volumetric, isotropic source population and incorporate the resulting distribution over signal amplitude, time delay, and coalescence phase into the ranking of candidate events. We describe an improved modeling of the background distribution, and demonstrate incorporating a prior model of the binary mass distribution in the ranking of candidate events. We find a $\sim 10\%$ and $\sim 20\%$ increase in detection volume for simulated binary neutron star and neutron star--binary black hole systems, respectively, corresponding to a reduction of the false alarm rates assigned to signals by between one and two orders of magnitude.

7 pages, 3 figures, as accepted by ApJ

References in corpus (9)

• GW170104: Observation of a 50-Solar-Mass Binary Black Hole Coalescence at Redshift 0.2
• Exploring the Sensitivity of Next Generation Gravitational Wave Detectors
• Implementing a search for aligned-spin neutron star -- black hole systems with advanced ground based gravitational wave detectors
• Reconstructing the neutron-star equation of state with gravitational-wave detectors from a realistic population of inspiralling binary neutron stars
• Upper limits on the rates of binary neutron star and neutron-star--black-hole mergers from Advanced LIGO's first observing run
• Detecting binary neutron star systems with spin in advanced gravitational-wave detectors
• The third and a half post-Newtonian gravitational wave quadrupole mode for quasi-circular inspiralling compact binaries
• Search for intermediate mass black hole binaries in the first observing run of Advanced LIGO
• Open statistical issues in particle physics

Cited by in corpus (153)

• GWTC-1: A Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog of Compact Binary Mergers Observed by LIGO and Virgo during the First and Second Observing Runs
• GWTC-2: Compact Binary Coalescences Observed by LIGO and Virgo During the First Half of the Third Observing Run
• GW190814: Gravitational Waves from the Coalescence of a 23 M${}_{\odot }$ Black Hole with a 2.6 M${}_{\odot }$ Compact Object
• GWTC-3: Compact Binary Coalescences Observed by LIGO and Virgo During the Second Part of the Third Observing Run
• GW190521: A Binary Black Hole Merger with a Total Mass of $150M_{\odot }$
• GW170608: Observation of a 19-solar-mass Binary Black Hole Coalescence
• Binary Black Hole Population Properties Inferred from the First and Second Observing Runs of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo
• Observation of gravitational waves from two neutron star-black hole coalescences
• GW190412: Observation of a Binary-Black-Hole Coalescence with Asymmetric Masses
• New binary black hole mergers in the second observing run of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo
• PyCBC Inference: A Python-based parameter estimation toolkit for compact binary coalescence signals
• Enriching the Symphony of Gravitational Waves from Binary Black Holes by Tuning Higher Harmonics
• Matching matched filtering with deep networks in gravitational-wave astronomy
• 2-OGC: Open Gravitational-wave Catalog of binary mergers from analysis of public Advanced LIGO and Virgo data
• 4-OGC: Catalog of gravitational waves from compact-binary mergers
• LIGO Detector Characterization in the Second and Third Observing Runs
• Phenomenological model for the gravitational-wave signal from precessing binary black holes with two-spin effects
• 1-OGC: The first open gravitational-wave catalog of binary mergers from analysis of public Advanced LIGO data
• Observation of Gravitational Waves from the Coalescence of a $2.5\text{-}4.5M_{\odot }$ Compact Object and a Neutron Star
• 3-OGC: Catalog of gravitational waves from compact-binary mergers
• Where are LIGO's Big Black Holes?
• A New Search Pipeline for Compact Binary Mergers: Results for Binary Black Holes in the First Observing Run of Advanced LIGO
• New binary black hole mergers in the LIGO--Virgo O3a data
• PyCBC Live: Rapid Detection of Gravitational Waves from Compact Binary Mergers
• The MBTA Pipeline for Detecting Compact Binary Coalescences in the Third LIGO-Virgo Observing Run
• Convolutional neural networks: a magic bullet for gravitational-wave detection?
• Implications of Eccentric Observations on Binary Black Hole Formation Channels
• Extending the PyCBC search for gravitational waves from compact binary mergers to a global network
• GW231123: a Binary Black Hole Merger with Total Mass 190-265 $M_{\odot }$
• Low-Latency Gravitational Wave Alerts for Multi-Messenger Astronomy During the Second Advanced LIGO and Virgo Observing Run
• Fast evaluation of multi-detector consistency for real-time gravitational wave searches
• On the properties of the massive binary black hole merger GW170729
• Distinguishing short duration noise transients in LIGO data to improve the PyCBC search for gravitational waves from high mass binary black hole mergers
• Realtime search for compact binary mergers in Advanced LIGO and Virgo's third observing run using PyCBC Live
• Search for intermediate mass black hole binaries in the third observing run of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo
• The curious case of GW200129: interplay between spin-precession inference and data-quality issues
• Searching for the full symphony of black hole binary mergers
• Measuring gravitational-wave higher-order modes
• Search for strongly lensed counterpart images of binary black hole mergers in the first two LIGO observing runs
• Search for Eccentric Binary Neutron Star Mergers in the first and second observing runs of Advanced LIGO
• Constraints on the moment of inertia of PSR J0737-3039A from GW170817
• The Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy catalog approach for gravitational wave cosmology
• Binary Black Hole Mergers from LIGO/Virgo O1 and O2: Population Inference Combining Confident and Marginal Events
• Search for subsolar-mass binaries in the first half of Advanced LIGO and Virgo's third observing run
• Detection of gravitational-wave signals from binary neutron star mergers using machine learning
• Two-harmonic approximation for gravitational waveforms from precessing binaries
• MLGWSC-1: The first Machine Learning Gravitational-Wave Search Mock Data Challenge
• Broad search for gravitational waves from subsolar-mass binaries through LIGO and Virgo's third observing run
• Search for gravitational waves from the coalescence of sub-solar mass binaries in the first half of Advanced LIGO and Virgo's third observing run
• GWTC-4.0: Updating the Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog with Observations from the First Part of the Fourth LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Observing Run
• Virgo Detector Characterization and Data Quality: results from the O3 run
• The impact of the crust equation of state on the analysis of GW170817
• GROWTH on S190426c. II. Real-Time Search for a Counterpart to the Probable Neutron Star-Black Hole Merger using an Automated Difference Imaging Pipeline for DECam
• Expanding the LISA Horizon from the Ground
• Impact of eccentricity on the gravitational wave searches for binary black holes: High mass case
• Targeted Sub-threshold Search for Strongly-lensed Gravitational-wave Events
• Search for gravitational waves from high-mass-ratio compact-binary mergers of stellar mass and sub-solar mass black holes
• Sensitivity of gravitational wave searches to the full signal of intermediate mass black hole binaries during the LIGO O1 Science Run
• Digging the population of compact binary mergers out of the noise
• New binary black hole mergers in the LIGO-Virgo O3b data
• Localization of binary mergers with gravitational-wave detectors of second and third generation
• A Search for Gravitational Waves from Binary Mergers with a Single Observatory
• NuRIA: Numerical Relativity Injection Analysis of spinning binary black hole signals in Advanced LIGO data
• Utilizing aLIGO Glitch Classifications to Validate Gravitational-Wave Candidates
• Gravitational-wave selection effects using neural-network classifiers
• From One to Many: A Deep Learning Coincident Gravitational-Wave Search
• GW241011 and GW241110: Exploring Binary Formation and Fundamental Physics with Asymmetric, High-Spin Black Hole Coalescence
• On the Potential Observation of False Deviations from General Relativity in Gravitational Wave Observations from Binary Black Holes
• First gravitational-wave search for intermediate-mass black hole mergers with higher order harmonics
• Localization of transient gravitational wave sources: beyond triangulation
• Binary Neutron Stars Gravitational Wave Detection Based on Wavelet Packet Analysis And Convolutional Neural Networks
• Generalized Approach to Matched Filtering using Neural Networks
• Parameterised population models of transient non-Gaussian noise in the LIGO gravitational-wave detectors
• Enhancing confidence in the detection of gravitational waves from compact binaries using signal coherence
• An optimized PyCBC search for gravitational waves from intermediate-mass black hole mergers
• Improving significance of binary black hole mergers in Advanced LIGO data using deep learning : Confirmation of GW151216
• Using negative-latency gravitational wave alerts to detect prompt radio bursts from binary neutron star mergers with the Murchison Widefield Array
• Potential Gravitational-wave and Gamma-ray Multi-messenger Candidate from Oct. 30, 2015
• Eccentric Binary Neutron Star Search Prospects for Cosmic Explorer
• Addressing the challenges of detecting time-overlapping compact binary coalescences
• Evidence for subdominant multipole moments and precession in merging black-hole-binaries from GWTC-2.1
• Gaussian Processes for Glitch-robust Gravitational-wave Astronomy
• Utilizing the null stream of the Einstein Telescope
• Fast Parameter Estimation of Binary Mergers for Multimessenger Followup
• A Joint Fermi-GBM and LIGO/Virgo Analysis of Compact Binary Mergers From the First and Second Gravitational-wave Observing Runs
• The impact of selection biases on tests of general relativity with gravitational-wave inspirals
• Searching for Gamma-Ray counterparts to Gravitational Waves from merging binary neutron stars with the Cherenkov Telescope Array
• Establishing significance of gravitational-wave signals from a single observatory in the PyCBC offline search
• Jet Geometry and Rate Estimate of Coincident Gamma Ray Burst and Gravitational Wave Observations
• New search pipeline for gravitational waves with higher-order modes using mode-by-mode filtering
• Convolutional neural network for gravitational-wave early alert: Going down in frequency
• Lensing magnification: gravitational waves from coalescing stellar-mass binary black holes
• Optimized Search for a Binary Black Hole Merger Population in LIGO-Virgo O3 Data
• Compact Binary Coalescences in Dense Gaseous Environments Can Pose as ones in Vacuum
• Search for eccentric NSBH and BNS mergers in the third observing run of Advanced LIGO and Virgo
• The astrophysical odds of GW151216
• Enabling multi-messenger astronomy with continuous gravitational waves: early warning and sky localization of binary neutron stars in Einstein Telescope
• Fast marginalization algorithm for optimizing gravitational wave detection, parameter estimation and sky localization
• SiGMa-Net: Deep learning network to distinguish binary black hole signals from short-duration noise transients
• Searches for Mass-Asymmetric Compact Binary Coalescence Events using Neural Networks in the LIGO/Virgo Third Observation Period
• Assessing gravitational-wave binary black hole candidates with Bayesian odds
• SAGE: finding IMBH in the black hole desert
• Characterization of low-significance gravitational-wave compact binary sources
• A GPU-accelerated semi-coherent hierarchical search for stellar-mass binary inspiral signals in LISA
• Observational implications of lowering the LIGO-Virgo alert threshold
• Multi-messenger observations of core-collapse supernovae: Exploiting the standing accretion shock instability
• Search for Advanced LIGO Single Interferometer Compact Binary Coalescence Signals in Coincidence with Gamma-Ray Events in Fermi-GBM
• The False Alarms induced by Gaussian Noise in Gravitational Wave Detectors
• Incorporating information from LIGO data quality streams into the PyCBC search for gravitational waves
• Rarity of precession and higher-order multipoles in gravitational waves from merging binary black holes
• Search for lensing signatures in the gravitational-wave observations from the first half of LIGO-Virgo's third observing run
• Matched filtering for gravitational wave detection without template bank driven by deep learning template prediction model bank
• Posterior samples of the parameters of binary black holes from Advanced LIGO, Virgo's second observing run
• Search for Coincident Gravitational-wave and Fast Radio Burst Events from 4-OGC and the First CHIME/FRB Catalog
• An optimal ${\chi }^2$ discriminator against modelled noise-transients in interferometric data in searches for binary black-hole mergers
• Hierarchical search strategy for the efficient detection of gravitational waves from non-precessing coalescing compact binaries with aligned-spins
• Probe and Prejudice: Classification of compact objects and model comparison using EOS knowledge
• Beyond general relativity: designing a template-based search for exotic gravitational wave signals
• Inferring the Astrophysical Population of Gravitational Wave Sources in the Presence of Noise Transients
• Parameter Estimation with Nonstationary Noise in Gravitational-wave Data
• Bayesian Inference Analysis of Unmodelled Gravitational-Wave Transients
• Gravitational Wave Measurement in the Mid-Band with Atom Interferometers
• A Unified $p_{\mathrm{astro}}$ for Gravitational Waves: Consistently Combining Information from Multiple Search Pipelines
• Binary Neutron Star Merger Search Pipeline Powered by Deep Learning
• Targeted Search for Gravitational Waves from Highly Spinning Light Compact Binaries
• GW230814: investigation of a loud gravitational-wave signal observed with a single detector
• Detection of GW200105 with a targeted eccentric search
• Search for Coincident Gravitational Wave and Long Gamma-Ray Bursts from 4-OGC and the Fermi-GBM/Swift-BAT Catalog
• Probing AGN jet precession with LISA
• Gravitational-wave searches in the era of Advanced LIGO and Virgo
• WINTER on S250206dm: A near-infrared search for an electromagnetic counterpart to a gravitational-wave event
• A follow-up on intermediate-mass black hole candidates in the second LIGO-Virgo observing run with the Bayes Coherence Ratio
• Probing eccentric higher-order modes through an effective chirp mass model
• Uncovering faint lensed gravitational-wave signals and reprioritizing their follow-up analysis using galaxy lensing forecasts with detected counterparts
• Identifying and Mitigating Machine Learning Biases for the Gravitational Wave Detection Problem
• Obtaining Statistical Significance of Gravitational Wave Signals in Hierarchical Search
• Deep Multimessenger Search for Compact Binary Mergers in LIGO, Virgo, and Fermi/GBM Data from 2016-2017
• Application of a new transient-noise analysis tool for an unmodeled gravitational-wave search pipeline
• Hierarchical searches for subsolar-mass binaries and the third-generation gravitational wave detector era
• Boosting the Efficiency of Parametric Detection with Hierarchical Neural Networks
• Metric Assisted Stochastic Sampling (MASS) search for gravitational waves from binary black hole mergers
• The impact of precession and higher-order multipoles for gravitational wave cosmological inference
• Improved Binary Black Hole Search Discriminator from the Singular Value Decomposition of Non-Gaussian Noise Transients
• Probing cosmic strings via gravitational-wave lensing
• Reducing systematic uncertainties in gravitational-wave population analyses by increasing the detection threshold
• Search for Precessing Binary Black Holes in Advanced LIGO's Third Observing Run using Harmonic Decomposition
• Searches for Compact Binary Coalescence Events Using Neural Networks in LIGO/Virgo Third Observation Period
• Enhancing gravitational-wave detection: a machine learning pipeline combination approach with robust uncertainty quantification
• Reconsidering the consistent use of precessing, higher order multipole models for gravitational wave analyses
• Chasing Gamma-Ray Signals from Binary Neutron Star Coalescences with the Cherenkov Telescope Array: Prospects and Observing Strategies
• Unveiling gravitational waves from core-collapse supernovae with MUSE
• Hierarchical search for compact binary coalescences in the Advanced LIGO's first two observing runs
• Using machine learning to auto-tune chi-squared tests for gravitational wave searches