No Arabic abstract
To date, close to fifty presumed black hole binary mergers were observed by the LIGO and Virgo detectors. The analyses have been done with an assumption that these objects are black holes by limiting the spin prior to the Kerr bound. However, the above assumption is not valid for superspinars, which have the Kerr geometry but rotate beyond the Kerr bound. In this study, we investigate whether and how the limited spin prior range causes a bias in parameter estimation for superspinars if they are detected. To this end, we estimate binary parameters of the simulated inspiral signals of the gravitational waves of compact binaries by assuming that at least one component of them is a superspinar. We have found that when the primary is a superspinar, both mass and spin parameters are biased in parameter estimation due to the limited spin prior range. In this case, the extended prior range is strongly favored compared to the limited one. On the other hand, when the primary is a black hole, we do not see much bias in parameter estimation due to the limited spin prior range, even though the secondary is a superspinar. We also apply the analysis to black hole binary merger events GW170608 and GW190814, which have a long and loud inspiral signal. We do not see any preference of superspinars from the model selection for both events. We conclude that the extension of the spin prior range is necessary for accurate parameter estimation if highly spinning primary objects are found, while it is difficult to identify superspinars if they are only the secondary objects. Nevertheless, the bias in parameter estimation of spin for the limited spin prior range can be a clue of the existence of superspinars.
The Advanced LIGO and Virgo gravitational wave observatories have opened a new window with which to study the inspiral and mergers of binary compact objects. These observations are most powerful when coordinated with multi-messenger observations. This was underlined by the first observation of a binary neutron star merger GW170817, coincident with a short Gamma-ray burst, GRB170817A, and the identification of the host galaxy NGC~4993 from the optical counterpart AT~2017gfo. Finding the fast-fading optical counterpart critically depends on the rapid production of a sky-map based on LIGO/Virgo data. Currently, a rapid initial sky map is produced followed by a more accurate, high-latency, $gtrsimSI{12}{hr}$ sky map. We study optimization choices of the Bayesian prior and signal model which can be used alongside other approaches such as reduced order quadrature. We find these yield up to a $60%$ reduction in the time required to produce the high-latency localisation for binary neutron star mergers.
We introduce a method based on the loudest event statistic to calculate an upper limit or interval on the astrophysical rate of binary coalescence. The calculation depends upon the sensitivity and noise background of the detectors, and a model for the astrophysical distribution of coalescing binaries. There are significant uncertainties in the calculation of the rate due to both astrophysical and instrumental uncertainties as well as errors introduced by using the post--Newtonian waveform to approximate the full signal. We catalog these uncertainties in detail and describe a method for marginalizing over them. Throughout, we provide an example based on the initial LIGO detectors.
We study the prospects of future gravitational wave (GW) detectors in probing primordial black hole (PBH) binaries. We show that across a broad mass range from $10^{-5}M_odot$ to $10^7M_odot$, future GW interferometers provide a potential probe of the PBH abundance that is more sensitive than any currently existing experiment. In particular, we find that galactic PBH binaries with masses as low as $10^{-5}M_odot$ may be probed with ET, AEDGE and LISA by searching for nearly monochromatic continuous GW signals. Such searches could independently test the PBH interpretation of the ultrashort microlensing events observed by OGLE. We also consider the possibility of observing GWs from asteroid mass PBH binaries through graviton-photon conversion.
Inferring astrophysical information from gravitational waves emitted by compact binaries is one of the key science goals of gravitational-wave astronomy. In order to reach the full scientific potential of gravitational-wave experiments we require techniques to mitigate the cost of Bayesian inference, especially as gravitational-wave signal models and analyses become increasingly sophisticated and detailed. Reduced order models (ROMs) of gravitational waveforms can significantly reduce the computational cost of inference by removing redundant computations. In this paper we construct the first reduced order models of gravitational-wave signals that include the effects of spin-precession, inspiral, merger, and ringdown in compact object binaries, and which are valid for component masses describing binary neutron star, binary black hole and mixed binary systems. This work utilizes the waveform model known as IMRPhenomPv2. Our ROM enables the use of a fast reduced order quadrature (ROQ) integration rule which allows us to approximate Bayesian probability density functions at a greatly reduced computational cost. We find that the ROQ rule can be used to speed up inference by factors as high as 300 without introducing systematic bias. This corresponds to a reduction in computational time from around half a year to a half a day, for the longest duration/lowest mass signals. The ROM and ROQ rule are available with the main inference library of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, LALInference.
Certain scalar-tensor theories have the property of endowing stars with scalar hair, sourced either by the stars own compactness (spontaneous scalarization) or, for binary systems, by the companions scalar hair (induced scalarization) or by the orbital binding energy (dynamical scalarization). Scalarized stars in binaries present different conservative dynamics than in General Relativity, and can also excite a scalar mode in the metric perturbation that carries away dipolar radiation. As a result, the binary orbit shrinks faster than predicted in General Relativity, modifying the rate of decay of the orbital period. In spite of this, scalar-tensor theories can pass existing binary pulsar tests, because observed pulsars may not be compact enough or sufficiently orbitally bound to activate scalarization. Gravitational waves emitted during the last stages of compact binary inspirals are thus ideal probes of scalarization effects. For the standard projected sensitivity of advanced LIGO, we here show that, if neutron stars are sufficiently compact to enter the detectors sensitivity band already scalarized, then gravitational waves could place constraints at least comparable to binary pulsars. If the stars dynamically scalarize while inspiraling in band, then constraints are still possible provided the scalarization occurs sufficiently early in the inspiral, roughly below an orbital frequency of 50Hz. In performing these studies, we derive an easy-to-calculate data analysis measure, an integrated phase difference between a General Relativistic and a modified signal, that maps directly to the Bayes factor so as to determine whether a modified gravity effect is detectable. Finally, we find that custom-made templates are equally effective as model-independent, parameterized post-Einsteinian waveforms at detecting such modified gravity effects at realistic signal-to-noise ratios.