Digging the population of compact binary mergers out of the noise

Gaebel, S. M., Veitch, J. , Dent, T. and Farr, W. M. (2019) Digging the population of compact binary mergers out of the noise. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 484(3), pp. 4008-4023. (doi: 10.1093/mnras/stz225)

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Abstract

Coalescing compact binaries emitting gravitational wave (GW) signals, as recently detected by the Advanced LIGO-Virgo network, constitute a population over the multi-dimensional space of component masses and spins, redshift, and other parameters. Characterizing this population is a major goal of GWobservations and may be approached via parametric models.We demonstrate hierarchical inference for such models with a method that accounts for uncertainties in each binary merger’s individual parameters, for mass-dependent selection effects, and also for the presence of a second population of candidate events caused by detector noise. Thus, the method is robust to potential biases from a contaminated sample and allows us to extract information from events that have a relatively small probability of astrophysical origin.

Item Type:Articles
Additional Information:This work was supported by STFC grants ST/K005014/2 and ST/M004090/2. TD acknowledges support from the Maria de Maeztu Unit of Excellence MDM-2016- 0692.
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Veitch, Dr John
Authors: Gaebel, S. M., Veitch, J., Dent, T., and Farr, W. M.
College/School:College of Science and Engineering > School of Physics and Astronomy
Research Centre:College of Science and Engineering > School of Physics and Astronomy > Institute for Gravitational Research
Journal Name:Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Publisher:Oxford University Press
ISSN:0035-8711
ISSN (Online):1365-2966
Published Online:22 January 2019
Copyright Holders:Copyright © 2019 The Authors
First Published:First published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 484(3): 4008-4023
Publisher Policy:Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy

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Project CodeAward NoProject NamePrincipal InvestigatorFunder's NameFunder RefLead Dept
3011520Surveying black holes and neutron stars with gravitational wavesJohn VeitchScience and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)ST/K005014/2P&S - Physics & Astronomy
3011480Constraining compact binary formation with gravitational wave observationsJohn VeitchScience and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)ST/M004090/2P&S - Physics & Astronomy