Related papers: Implementing a search for gravitational waves from…
We demonstrate a new geometric method for fast template placement for searches for gravitational waves from the inspiral, merger and ringdown of compact binaries. The method is based on a binary tree decomposition of the template bank…
Coalescing binary black holes are among the primary science targets for second generation ground-based gravitational wave (GW) detectors. Reliable GW models are central to detection of such systems and subsequent parameter estimation. This…
The recent discovery of the stochastic gravitational-wave background via pulsar timing arrays will likely be followed by the detection of individual black hole binaries that stand out above the background. However, to confidently claim the…
Globular clusters (GCs) are crucial for studying stellar dynamics and galactic structure, yet precise measurements of their distances and masses are often limited by uncertainties in electromagnetic (EM) observations. We present a novel…
The detection of intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) i.e. those with mass $\sim 100$-$10^5 M_\odot$, is an emerging goal of gravitational-wave (GW) astronomy with wide implications for cosmology and tests of strong-field gravity. Current…
Precession in Binary Black Holes (BBH) is caused by the failure of the Black Hole spins to be aligned and its study can open up new perspectives in gravitational waves (GW) astronomy, providing, among other advancements, a precise measure…
The study of compact binary in-spirals and mergers with gravitational wave observatories amounts to optimizing a theoretical description of the data to best reproduce the true detector output. While most of the research effort in…
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…
The two binary black-hole (BBH) coalescences detected by LIGO, GW150914 and GW151226, were relatively nearby sources, with a redshift of ~0.1. As the sensitivity of Advanced LIGO and Virgo increases in the next few years, they will…
Matched filtering is a common method for detecting gravitational waves. However, the computational costs of searching large template banks limit the efficiency of classical algorithms when searching for massive black hole binary (MBHB)…
The first direct detections of gravitational waves from merging binary black holes open a unique window into the binary black hole formation environment. One promising environmental signature is the angular distribution of the black hole…
We describe the methods used to construct the aligned-spin template bank of gravitational waveforms used by the GstLAL-based inspiral pipeline to analyze data from the second observing run of Advanced LIGO and the first observing run of…
We determine the mass-ratio, eccentricity and binary inclination angles that maximize the contribution of the higher-order waveform multipoles $(\ell, \, |m|)= \{(2,\,2),\, (2,\,1),\, (3,\,3),\, (3,\,2), \, (3,\,1),\, (4,\,4),\, (4,\,3),\,…
We study the effectiveness of stationary-phase approximated post-Newtonian waveforms currently used by ground-based gravitational-wave detectors to search for the coalescence of binary black holes by comparing them to an accurate waveform…
The formation of merging binary black holes can occur through multiple astrophysical channels such as, e.g., isolated binary evolution and dynamical formation or, alternatively, have a primordial origin. Increasingly large…
Observations by LIGO--Virgo of binary black hole mergers suggest a possible anti-correlation between black hole mass ratio ($q=m_{2}/m_{1}$) and the effective inspiral spin parameter $\chi_{\rm eff}$, the mass-weighted spin projection onto…
We report results on the first matched-filtering search for binaries with compact objects having large tidal deformabilities in the LIGO-Virgo gravitational wave (GW) data. The tidal deformability of a body is quantified by the ``Love…
Inspiraling binary neutron stars are expected to be one of the most significant sources of gravitational-wave signals for the new generation of advanced ground-based detectors. We investigate how well we could hope to measure properties of…
Gravitational wave echoes have been proposed as a smoking-gun signature of exotic compact objects with near-horizon structure. Recently there have been observational claims that echoes are indeed present in stretches of data from Advanced…
The first direct detection of neutron-star-black-hole binaries will likely be made with gravitational-wave observatories. Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo will be able to observe neutron-star-black-hole mergers at a maximum distance of…