TIGER: A data analysis pipeline for testing the strong-field dynamics of general relativity with gravitational wave signals from coalescing compact binaries

M. Agathos, W. Del Pozzo, T. G. F. Li, C. Van Den Broeck, J. Veitch, and S. Vitale
Phys. Rev. D 89, 082001 – Published 4 April 2014

Abstract

The direct detection of gravitational waves with upcoming second-generation gravitational wave observatories such as Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo will allow us to probe the genuinely strong-field dynamics of general relativity (GR) for the first time. We have developed a data analysis pipeline called TIGER (test infrastructure for general relativity), which uses signals from compact binary coalescences to perform a model-independent test of GR. In this paper we focus on signals from coalescing binary neutron stars, for which sufficiently accurate waveform models are already available which can be generated fast enough on a computer that they can be used in Bayesian inference. By performing numerical experiments in stationary, Gaussian noise, we show that for such systems, TIGER is robust against a number of unmodeled fundamental, astrophysical, and instrumental effects, such as differences between waveform approximants, a limited number of post-Newtonian phase contributions being known, the effects of neutron star tidal deformability on the orbital motion, neutron star spins, and instrumental calibration errors.

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  • Received 3 November 2013

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.89.082001

© 2014 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

M. Agathos1,*, W. Del Pozzo1,2, T. G. F. Li1,3, C. Van Den Broeck1, J. Veitch1, and S. Vitale4

  • 1Nikhef–National Institute for Subatomic Physics, Science Park 105, 1098 XG Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  • 2School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom
  • 3LIGO Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA
  • 4LIGO Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA

  • *magathos@nikhef.nl

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Vol. 89, Iss. 8 — 15 April 2014

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