Testing gravitational waveform models using angular momentum

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer review

Authors

  • Neev Khera
  • Abhay Ashtekar
  • Badri Krishnan

Research Organisations

External Research Organisations

  • Pennsylvania State University
  • Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute)
  • Radboud University Nijmegen (RU)
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Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number124071
JournalPhysical Review D
Volume104
Issue number12
Publication statusPublished - 27 Dec 2021

Abstract

The anticipated enhancements in detector sensitivity and the corresponding increase in the number of gravitational wave detections will make it possible to estimate parameters of compact binaries with greater accuracy assuming general relativity(GR), and also to carry out sharper tests of GR itself. Crucial to these procedures are accurate gravitational waveform models. The systematic errors of the models must stay below statistical errors to prevent biases in parameter estimation and to carry out meaningful tests of GR. Comparisons of the models against numerical relativity (NR) waveforms provide an excellent measure of systematic errors. A complementary approach is to use balance laws provided by Einstein's equations to measure faithfulness of a candidate waveform against exact GR. Each balance law focuses on a physical observable and measures the accuracy of the candidate waveform vis a vis that observable. Therefore, this analysis can provide new physical insights into sources of errors. In this paper we focus on the angular momentum balance law, using post-Newtonian theory to calculate the initial angular momentum, surrogate fits to obtain the remnant spin and waveforms from models to calculate the flux. The consistency check provided by the angular momentum balance law brings out the marked improvement in the passage from \texttt{IMRPhenomPv2} to \texttt{IMRPhenomXPHM} and from \texttt{SEOBNRv3} to \texttt{SEOBNRv4PHM} and shows that the most recent versions agree quite well with exact GR. For precessing systems, on the other hand, we find that there is room for further improvement, especially for the Phenom models.

Keywords

    gr-qc

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Cite this

Testing gravitational waveform models using angular momentum. / Khera, Neev; Ashtekar, Abhay; Krishnan, Badri.
In: Physical Review D, Vol. 104, No. 12, 124071, 27.12.2021.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer review

Khera N, Ashtekar A, Krishnan B. Testing gravitational waveform models using angular momentum. Physical Review D. 2021 Dec 27;104(12):124071. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevD.104.124071
Khera, Neev ; Ashtekar, Abhay ; Krishnan, Badri. / Testing gravitational waveform models using angular momentum. In: Physical Review D. 2021 ; Vol. 104, No. 12.
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title = "Testing gravitational waveform models using angular momentum",
abstract = " The anticipated enhancements in detector sensitivity and the corresponding increase in the number of gravitational wave detections will make it possible to estimate parameters of compact binaries with greater accuracy assuming general relativity(GR), and also to carry out sharper tests of GR itself. Crucial to these procedures are accurate gravitational waveform models. The systematic errors of the models must stay below statistical errors to prevent biases in parameter estimation and to carry out meaningful tests of GR. Comparisons of the models against numerical relativity (NR) waveforms provide an excellent measure of systematic errors. A complementary approach is to use balance laws provided by Einstein's equations to measure faithfulness of a candidate waveform against exact GR. Each balance law focuses on a physical observable and measures the accuracy of the candidate waveform vis a vis that observable. Therefore, this analysis can provide new physical insights into sources of errors. In this paper we focus on the angular momentum balance law, using post-Newtonian theory to calculate the initial angular momentum, surrogate fits to obtain the remnant spin and waveforms from models to calculate the flux. The consistency check provided by the angular momentum balance law brings out the marked improvement in the passage from \texttt{IMRPhenomPv2} to \texttt{IMRPhenomXPHM} and from \texttt{SEOBNRv3} to \texttt{SEOBNRv4PHM} and shows that the most recent versions agree quite well with exact GR. For precessing systems, on the other hand, we find that there is room for further improvement, especially for the Phenom models. ",
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