Published September 26, 2024 | Version Published
Journal Article Open

Inferring Binary Properties from Gravitational-Wave Signals

  • 1. ROR icon California Institute of Technology
  • 2. ROR icon Tata Institute of Fundamental Research
  • 3. ROR icon University of California, Santa Barbara

Abstract

This review provides a conceptual and technical survey of methods for parameter estimation of gravitational-wave signals in ground-based interferometers such as Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and Virgo. We introduce the framework of Bayesian inference and provide an overview of models for the generation and detection of gravitational waves from compact binary mergers, focusing on the essential features that are observable in the signals. Within the traditional likelihood-based paradigm, we describe various approaches for enhancing the efficiency and robustness of parameter inference. This includes techniques for accelerating likelihood evaluations, such as heterodyne/relative binning, reduced-order quadrature, multibanding, and interpolation. We also cover methods to simplify the analysis to improve convergence, via reparameterization, importance sampling, and marginalization. We end with a discussion of recent developments in the application of likelihood-free (simulation-based) inference methods to gravitational-wave data analysis.

Copyright and License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. See credit lines of images or other third-party material in this article for license information.

Acknowledgement

We thank Katerina Chatziioannou for insightful comments on the manuscript, and Eliot Finch and Jonathan Thompson for helpful discussion. J.R. acknowledges support from the Sherman Fairchild Foundation. T.V. acknowledges support from National Science Foundation grants 2012086 and 2309360, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation through grant number FG-2023-20470, the Binational Science Foundation through award number 2022136, and the Hellman Family Faculty Fellowship.

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Additional details

Related works

Is new version of
Discussion Paper: arXiv:2402.11439 (arXiv)

Funding

Sherman Fairchild Foundation
National Science Foundation
PHY-2012086
National Science Foundation
PHY-2309360
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
FG-2023-20470
United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation
2022136
Hellman Foundation

Dates

Available
2024-06-19
First published as Review in Advance

Caltech Custom Metadata

Caltech groups
TAPIR, Walter Burke Institute for Theoretical Physics
Publication Status
Published