Related papers: Estimating the parameters of non-spinning binary b…
Parameter estimates of GW150914 were obtained using Bayesian inference, based on three semi-analytic waveform models for binary black hole coalescences. These waveform models differ from each other in their treatment of black hole spins,…
We present a prescription for computing gravitational waveforms for the inspiral, merger and ringdown of non-spinning eccentric binary black hole systems. The inspiral waveform is computed using the post-Newtonian expansion and the merger…
We explore the ability of future low-frequency gravitational wave detectors to measure the spin of stellar mass and intermediate mass black holes that inspiral onto super-massive Kerr black holes (SMBHs). We develop a kludge waveform model…
As gravitational-wave (GW) observations of binary black holes are becoming a precision tool for physics and astronomy, several subdominant effects in the GW signals need to be accurately modeled. Previous studies have shown that neglecting…
We compare waveforms obtained by numerically evolving nonspinning binary black holes to post-Newtonian (PN) template families currently used in the search for gravitational waves by ground-based detectors. We find that the time-domain 3.5PN…
We assess the detectability of the gravitational wave signals from highly eccentric compact binaries. We use a simple model for the inspiral, merger, and ringdown of these systems. The model is based on mapping the binary to an effective…
Recent years have witnessed tremendous progress in numerical relativity and an ever improving performance of ground-based interferometric gravitational wave detectors. In preparation for Advanced LIGO and a new era in gravitational wave…
We present and assess a Bayesian method to interpret gravitational wave signals from binary black holes. Our method directly compares gravitational wave data to numerical relativity simulations. This procedure bypasses approximations used…
Gravitational waves from binary black holes have the potential to yield information on both of the intrinsic parameters that characterize the compact objects: their masses and spins. While the component masses are usually resolvable, the…
Gravitational wave (GW) measurements provide the most robust constraints of the mass of astrophysical black holes. Using state-of-the-art GW signal models and a unique parameter estimation technique, we infer the source parameters of the…
Searches for gravitational-wave transients from binary black hole coalescences typically rely on one of two approaches: matched filtering with templates and morphology-independent excess power searches. Multiple algorithmic implementations…
We study the efficiency of nonspinning waveform templates in gravitational wave searches for aligned-spin binary black holes (BBHs). We use PhenomD, which is the most recent phenomenological waveform model designed to generate the full…
Advances in the field of numerical relativity now make it possible to calculate the final, most powerful merger phase of binary black-hole coalescence for generic binaries. The state of the art has advanced well beyond the equal-mass case…
The first detection of a gravitational-wave signal of a coalescence of two black holes marked the beginning of the era of gravitational-wave astronomy, which opens exciting new possibilities in the fields of astronomy, astrophysics and…
The plunge-merger stage of the binary-black hole coalescence, when the bodies' velocities reach a large fraction of the speed of light and the gravitational-wave luminosity peaks, provides a unique opportunity to probe gravity in the…
Space-born gravitational-wave interferometers such as {\it LISA} will detect the gravitational wave (GW) signal from the inspiral, plunge and ringdown phases of massive black hole binary mergers at cosmological distances. From the inspiral…
Inspirals and mergers of black hole (BHs) and/or neutron star (NSs) binaries are expected to be abundant sources for ground-based gravitational-wave (GW) detectors. We assess the capabilities of Advanced LIGO and Virgo to measure component…
We investigate the effect of spin-orbit and spin-spin couplings on the estimation of parameters for inspiralling compact binaries of massive black holes, and for neutron stars inspiralling into intermediate-mass black holes, using…
Astrophysical scenarios for the formation and evolution of intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) in the mass range $10^2 M_\odot \lesssim M \lesssim 10^6 M_\odot$ remain uncertain, but future ground-based gravitational-wave (GW)…
Gravitational waves from the explosive merger of distant black holes are encoded with details regarding the complex extreme-gravity spacetime present at their source. Famously described by the Kerr spacetime metric for rotating black holes…