Gravitational Waves from Mergin Compact Binaries: How Accurately Can One Extract the Binary's Parameters from the Inspiral Waveform?

Curt Cutler; Eanna Flanagan

doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.49.2658

paper

Gravitational Waves from Mergin Compact Binaries: How Accurately Can One Extract the Binary's Parameters from the Inspiral Waveform?

arXiv:gr-qc/9402014 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.49.2658

Abstract

The most promising source of gravitational waves for the planned detectors LIGO and VIRGO are merging compact binaries, i.e., neutron star/neutron star (NS/NS), neutron star/black hole (NS/BH), and black hole/black-hole (BH/BH) binaries. We investigate how accurately the distance to the source and the masses and spins of the two bodies will be measured from the gravitational wave signals by the three detector LIGO/VIRGO network using ``advanced detectors'' (those present a few years after initial operation). The combination $M \equiv (M_{1} M_{2})^{3/5} (M_{1} + M_{2})^{- 1/5}$ of the masses of the two bodies is measurable with an accuracy $\approx 0.1% - 1%$ . The reduced mass is measurable to $\sim 10% - 15%$ for NS/NS and NS/BH binaries, and $\sim 50%$ for BH/BH binaries (assuming $10 M_{⊙}$ BH's). Measurements of the masses and spins are strongly correlated; there is a combination of $μ$ and the spin angular momenta that is measured to within $\sim 1%$ . We also estimate that distance measurement accuracies will be $\leq 15%$ for $\sim 8%$ of the detected signals, and $\leq 30%$ for $\sim 60%$ of the signals, for the LIGO/VIRGO 3-detector network.

103 pages, 20 figures, submitted to Phys Rev D, uses revtex macros, Caltech preprint GRP-369

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Gravitational Radiation, Inspiraling Binaries, and Cosmology

Gravitational Waves from Mergin Compact Binaries: How Accurately Can One Extract the Binary's Parameters from the Inspiral Waveform?

Abstract

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