E. L. Robinson

Matching post-Newtonian and numerical relativity waveforms: Systematic errors and a new phenomenological model for nonprecessing black hole binaries

We present a new phenomenological gravitational waveform model for the inspiral and coalescence of nonprecessing spinning black hole binaries. Our approach is based on a frequency-domain matching of post-Newtonian inspiral waveforms with numerical relativity based binary black hole coalescence waveforms. We quantify the various possible sources of systematic errors that arise in matching post-Newtonian and numerical relativity waveforms, and we use a matching criteria based on minimizing these errors; we find that the dominant source of errors are those in the post-Newtonian waveforms near the merger. An analytical formula for the dominant mode of the gravitational radiation of nonprecessing black hole binaries is presented that captures the phenomenology of the hybrid waveforms. Its implementation in the current searches for gravitational waves should allow cross-checks of other inspiral-merger-ringdown waveform families and improve the reach of gravitational-wave searches.

Report on the second Mock LISA data challenge

The Mock LISA data challenges are a program to demonstrate LISA data-analysis capabilities and to encourage their development. Each round of challenges consists of several data sets containing simulated instrument noise and gravitational waves from sources of undisclosed parameters. Participants are asked to analyze the data sets and report the maximum information about the source parameters. The challenges are being released in rounds of increasing complexity and realism: here we present the results of Challenge 2, issued in Jan 2007, which successfully demonstrated the recovery of signals from nonspinning supermassive-black-hole binaries with optimal SNRs between ~10 and 2000, from ~20 000 overlapping galactic white-dwarf binaries (among a realistically distributed population of 26 million), and from the extreme-mass-ratio inspirals of compact objects into central galactic black holes with optimal SNRs ~100.

Prospects for stochastic background searches using Virgo and LSC interferometers

We consider the question of cross-correlation measurements using Virgo and the LSC Interferometers (LIGO Livingston, LIGO Hanford and GEO600) to search for a stochastic gravitational-wave background. We find that inclusion of Virgo into the network will substantially improve the sensitivity to correlations above 200 Hz if all detectors are operating at their design sensitivity. This is illustrated using a simulated isotropic stochastic background signal, generated with an astrophysically-motivated spectral shape, injected into 24 h of simulated noise for the LIGO and Virgo interferometers.

Treatment of calibration uncertainty in multi-baseline cross-correlation searches for gravitational waves

Uncertainty in the calibration of gravitational wave (GW) detector data leads to systematic errors, which must be accounted for in setting limits on the strength of GW signals. When cross-correlation measurements are made using data from a pair of instruments, as in searches for a stochastic GW background, the calibration uncertainties of the individual instruments can be combined into an uncertainty associated with the pair. With the advent of multi-baseline GW observation (e.g., networks consisting of multiple detectors such as the LIGO observatories and Virgo), a more sophisticated treatment is called for. We have described how the correlations between calibration factors associated with different pairs can be taken into account by marginalizing over the uncertainty associated with each instrument.

Search for a stochastic gravitational-wave signal in the second round of the Mock LISA Data Challenges

The analysis method currently proposed to search for isotropic stochastic radiation with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) relies on the combined use of two LISA channels, one of which is insensitive to gravitational waves, such as the symmetrized Sagnac. For this method to work, it is essential to know how the instrumental noise power in the two channels are related to one another; however, no quantitative estimates of this key information are available to date. The purpose of our study is to assess the performance of the symmetrized Sagnac method for different levels of prior information regarding the instrumental noise. We develop a general approach in the framework of Bayesian inference and an end-to-end analysis algorithm based on Markov chain Monte Carlo methods to compute the posterior probability density functions of the relevant model parameters. We apply this method to data released as part of the second round of the Mock LISA Data Challenges. For the selected (and somewhat idealized) example cases considered here, we find that for a signal whose amplitude dominates the instrumental noise by a factor ≈25, a prior uncertainty of a factor ≈2 in the ratio between the power of the instrumental noise contributions in the two channels allows for the detection of isotropic stochastic radiation. More importantly, we provide a framework for more realistic studies of LISAs performance and development of analysis techniques in the context of searches for stochastic signals.

George Orwell, Internment and the Illusion of Liberty

George Orwells initial response to wartime internment is characterised by his silence. Uncertainty, desire for government work, wartime necessity, political prejudice and faith in English reasonableness contributed to his toleration of the policy, in the specific context of total war. Orwell worried that criticising internment could undermine public trust in civil liberties, which performatively protected England from the excesses of totalitarianism. Unlike others on the Left, he therefore placed his faith not in the vigilance of parliament, but in an illusion embraced by the English people: that they remained guardians of civil liberties, despite a need in wartime to curtail them.