Data-analysis driven comparison of analytic and numerical coalescing binary waveforms: Nonspinning case

Yi Pan, Alessandra Buonanno, John G. Baker, Joan Centrella, Bernard J. Kelly, Sean T. McWilliams, Frans Pretorius, James R. Van Meter

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

124 Scopus citations

Abstract

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 template family, which includes the inspiral phase, has fitting factors (FFs) ≥0.96 for binary systems with total mass M=10-20. The time-domain 3.5PN effective-one-body template family, which includes the inspiral, merger, and ring-down phases, gives satisfactory signal-matching performance with FFs ≥0.96 for binary systems with total mass M=10-120M. If we introduce a cutoff frequency properly adjusted to the final black-hole ring-down frequency, we find that the frequency-domain stationary-phase- approximated template family at 3.5PN order has FFs ≥0.96 for binary systems with total mass M=10-20M. However, to obtain high matching performances for larger binary masses, we need to either extend this family to unphysical regions of the parameter space or introduce a 4PN order coefficient in the frequency-domain gravitational wave (GW) phase. Finally, we find that the phenomenological Buonanno-Chen-Vallisneri family has FFs ≥0.97 with total mass M=10-120M. The main analyses use the noise-spectral density of LIGO, but several tests are extended to VIRGO and advanced LIGO noise-spectral densities.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number024014
JournalPhysical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology
Volume77
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 10 2008

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Nuclear and High Energy Physics
  • Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)

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