Bayesian statistical framework for identifying strongly lensed gravitational-wave signals

Abstract

It is expected that gravitational waves, similar to electromagnetic waves, can be gravitationally lensed by intervening matters, producing multiple instances of the same signal arriving at different times from different apparent luminosity distances with different phase shifts compared to the un-lensed signal due to lensing. If unaccounted for, these lensed signals will masquerade as separate systems with higher mass and lower redshift. Here we present a Bayesian statistical framework for identifying strongly-lensed gravitational-wave signals that incorporates astrophysical information and accounts for selection effects. We also propose a two-step hierarchical analysis for more efficient computations of the probabilities and inferences of source parameters free from bias introduced by lensing. We show with examples on how changing the astrophysical models could shift one's interpretation on the origin of the observed gravitational waves, and possibly lead to indisputable evidence of strong lensing of the observed waves. In addition, we demonstrate the improvement in the sky localization of the source of the lensed signals, and in some cases the identification of the Morse indices of the lensed signals. If confirmed, lensed gravitational waves will allow us to probe the Universe at higher redshift, and to constrain the polarization contents of the waves with fewer detectors.

arXiv comment26 pages, 14 figures

References in corpus (43)

• Planck 2015 results. XIII. Cosmological parameters
• Advanced Virgo: a 2nd generation interferometric gravitational wave detector
• Advanced LIGO
• dynesty: A Dynamic Nested Sampling Package for Estimating Bayesian Posteriors and Evidences
• Bilby: A user-friendly Bayesian inference library for gravitational-wave astronomy
• Binary Black Hole Population Properties Inferred from the First and Second Observing Runs of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo
• The PyCBC search for gravitational waves from compact binary coalescence
• Properties and astrophysical implications of the 150 Msun binary black hole merger GW190521
• Computationally efficient models for the dominant and sub-dominant harmonic modes of precessing binary black holes
• Extracting distribution parameters from multiple uncertain observations with selection biases
• Analysis Framework for the Prompt Discovery of Compact Binary Mergers in Gravitational-wave Data
• Wave Effects in Gravitational Lensing of Gravitational Waves from Chirping Binaries
• Massively parallel Bayesian inference for transient gravitational-wave astronomy
• Hierarchical analysis of gravitational-wave measurements of binary black hole spin-orbit misalignments
• Search for gravitational lensing signatures in LIGO-Virgo binary black hole events
• Gravitational lensing of gravitational waves: A statistical perspective
• Effect of gravitational lensing on the distribution of gravitational waves from distant binary black hole mergers
• Strong gravitational lensing of explosive transients
• Precise LIGO Lensing Rate Predictions for Binary Black Holes
• Phase effects from strong gravitational lensing of gravitational waves
• On the likelihood of detecting gravitational waves from Population III compact object binaries
• Localizing merging black holes with sub-arcsecond precision using gravitational-wave lensing
• Accuracy Requirements for Empirically-Measured Selection Functions
• Estimation of the Sensitive Volume for Gravitational-wave Source Populations Using Weighted Monte Carlo Integration
• Identifying strong gravitational-wave lensing during the second observing run of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo
• Search for strongly lensed counterpart images of binary black hole mergers in the first two LIGO observing runs
• Testing the nature of gravitational-wave polarizations using strongly lensed signals
• Identifying Type II Strongly Lensed Gravitational-Wave Images in Third-Generation Gravitational-Wave Detectors
• On the waveforms of gravitationally lensed gravitational waves
• Search for Lensed Gravitational Waves Including Morse Phase Information: An Intriguing Candidate in O2
• Identifying strongly lensed gravitational wave signals from binary black hole mergers
• Maximum redshift of gravitational wave merger events
• Targeted Sub-threshold Search for Strongly-lensed Gravitational-wave Events
• Lensed or not lensed: Determining lensing magnifications for binary neutron star mergers from a single detection
• Inferring the lensing rate of LIGO-Virgo sources from the stochastic gravitational wave background
• Gravitational-wave selection effects using neural-network classifiers
• Gravitational Lensing of Gravitational Waves: Rotation of Polarization Plane
• Constraining the lensing of binary black holes from their stochastic background
• Estimating parameters of binary black holes from gravitational-wave observations of their inspiral, merger and ringdown
• Strong Gravitational Lensing and Localization of Merging Massive Black Hole Binaries with LISA
• Observational Selection Effects with Ground-based Gravitational Wave Detectors
• Parameter estimation with the current generation of phenomenological waveform models applied to the black hole mergers of GWTC-1
• The Two LIGO/Virgo Binary Black Hole Mergers on 2019 August 28 Were Not Strongly Lensed

Cited by in corpus (35)

• The Science of the Einstein Telescope
• Search for strongly lensed counterpart images of binary black hole mergers in the first two LIGO observing runs
• Beyond the detector horizon: Forecasting gravitational-wave strong lensing
• Gravitational wave lensing as a probe of halo properties and dark matter
• A fast and precise methodology to search for and analyse strongly lensed gravitational-wave events
• Follow-up Analyses to the O3 LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Lensing Searches
• Improved statistic to identify strongly lensed gravitational wave events
• Detection and parameter estimation challenges of Type-II lensed binary black hole signals
• Modified gravitational wave propagation with higher modes and its degeneracies with lensing
• Detectability of microlensed gravitational waves
• The Return of GOLUM: Improving Distributed Joint Parameter Estimation for Strongly-Lensed Gravitational Waves
• Identifying strongly lensed gravitational waves through their phase consistency
• Multi-messenger Gravitational Lensing
• Observational Signatures of Highly Magnified Gravitational Waves from Compact Binary Coalescence
• SLICK: Strong Lensing Identification of Candidates Kindred in gravitational wave data
• GLANCE -- Gravitational Lensing Authenticator using Non-Modelled Cross-Correlation Exploration of Gravitational Wave Signals
• Microlensing bias on the detection of strong lensing gravitational wave
• An interference-based method for the detection of strongly lensed gravitational waves
• What is the nature of GW230529? An exploration of the gravitational lensing hypothesis
• $\mu$-GLANCE: A Novel Technique to Detect Chromatically and Achromatically Lensed Gravitational Wave Signals
• False positives for gravitational lensing: the gravitational-wave perspective
• Waveform systematics in identifying strongly gravitationally lensed gravitational waves: Posterior overlap method
• lenscat: a Public and Community-Contributed Catalog of Known Strong Gravitational Lenses
• Rigorous calculation of scalar scattering in Schwarzschild background: the convergence of partial-wave series and Poisson spot
• TESLA-X: An effective method to search for sub-threshold lensed gravitational waves with a targeted population model
• Schwarzschild Lensing From Geodesic Deviation
• Mitigating the effect of the population model uncertainty on the strong lensing Bayes factor using nonparametric methods
• Gravitational lensing aided luminosity distance estimation for compact binary coalescences
• Identification of Strongly Lensed Gravitational Wave Events Using Squeeze-and-Excitation Multilayer Perceptron Data-efficient Image Transformer
• Phase consistency test to identify type II strongly lensed gravitational wave signals using a single event
• Using overlap of sky localization probability maps for filtering potentially lensed pairs of gravitational-wave signals
• Improved Identification of Strongly Lensed Gravitational Waves with Host Galaxy Locations
• A ${\chi }^2$ statistic for the identification of strongly lensed gravitational waves from compact binary coalescences
• Gravitational Lensing of Gravitational Waves from Astrophysical Sources: Theory, Detection, and Applications
• Mock Catalogs of Strongly Lensed Gravitational Waves via A Halo Model Approach with Ground-based Detectors