For gravitationally lensed type II signals, the phase of the dominant (2, 2) mode and the higher order (3, 3) mode is offset by −π/12, or roughly -0.26 radians. Using this, we develop a test for type II imagery by allowing the phases of the (2,2) and (3,3) modes to vary separately and introducing a new waveform parameter to represent the phase offset between the two. We use simulated, asymmetric mass ratio, precessing signals to show that the test can reproduce the −π/12 phase offset when detected by three detectors for H-L optimal SNR ≳ 40 and M≤30. We analyze GW190412 and GW190814 using this parameterization, measuring the offset to be 0.13−0.17+0.22 for GW190412 and −0.05−0.22+0.20 for GW190814. We also measure the Bayes factor in support of zero phase offset, log10BΔφ=0, to be −0.14 for GW190412 and 0.21 for GW190814. This implies our results are not strong enough to confidently argue if either event is a type II image, and is consistent with our statistical analysis.
@article{arxiv.2412.15148,
title = {Phase consistency test to identify type II strongly lensed gravitational wave signals using a single event},
author = {Kelsie Taylor and Derek Davis and Rico K. L. Lo},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2412.15148},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
10 pages, 7 figures; v2 - updated for consistency with PRD version, v3 - fixed minor typos