Gravitational Waves from Extragalactic Inspiraling Binaries: Selection Effects and Expected Detection Rates

Abstract

We examine the selection effects that determine how the population of inspiraling binary compact objects (BCOs) is reflected by those potentially observed with ground-based interferometers like LIGO. We lay the ground-work for the interpretation of future observations in terms of constraints on the real population and, correspondingly, binary star evolution models. To determine the extra-galactic population of inspiraling binaries we combine data on distance and blue luminosity from galaxy catalogs with current models of the galactic BCO mass distribution to simulate the physical distribution of binaries in the nearby universe. We use Monte Carlo methods to determine the fraction of binaries observable by the LIGO detectors from each galaxy as a function of the BCO chirp mass. We examine separately the role of source distance, sky position, time of detection, and binary system chirp mass on detection efficiency and selection effects relevant to the three LIGO detectors. Finally, we discuss the implications of the nearby geography of space on anticipated GW detection and compare our results to previous studies, which have assumed uniform galaxy volume density and fixed chirp mass for binary compact objects. From these considerations, actual BCO inspiral observations or significant upper limits on the coalescence rate anticipated in the near future by ground-based interferometers can be used to improve our knowledge of the galactic binary inspiral rate and to constrain models of radio pulsar characteristics and binary star evolution channels leading to neutron star or black hole binaries.

35 pages, including 12 figures. Revised following refereeing. Accepted for September publication in ApJ

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Cited by in corpus (21)

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• Double Compact Objects I: The Significance Of The Common Envelope On Merger Rates
• Double Compact Objects III: Gravitational Wave Detection Rates
• Closing in on a Short-Hard Burst Progenitor: Constraints from Early-Time Optical Imaging and Spectroscopy of a Possible Host Galaxy of GRB 050509b
• Cosmology with the lights off: Standard sirens in the Einstein Telescope era
• Analysis of LIGO data for gravitational waves from binary neutron stars
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• Search for gravitational waves from galactic and extra--galactic binary neutron stars
• Search for gravitational waves from binary black hole inspirals in LIGO data
• Short Gamma-Ray Bursts and Binary Mergers in Spiral and Elliptical Galaxies: Redshift Distribution and Hosts
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• Expected coalescence rates of NS-NS binaries for laser beam interferometers
• Constraining population synthesis models via the binary neutron star population
• Prompt Mergers of Neutron Stars with Black Holes
• Interpreting the results of searches for gravitational waves from coalescing binaries
• VIRGO sensitivity to binary coalescences and the Population III black hole binaries
• Impact of star formation inhomogeneities on merger rates and interpretation of LIGO results
• Hubble without the Hubble: cosmology using advanced gravitational-wave detectors alone
• Report on the first binary black hole inspiral search in LIGO data
• Searches for Gravitational Waves from Binary Neutron Stars: A Review
• Could GRB170817A be really correlated to a NS-NS merging?