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arXiv · 1903.05778

Accelerated detection of the binary neutron star gravitational-wave background

Francisco Hernandez Vivanco·Rory Smith·Eric Thrane·Paul D. Lasky
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Abstract

Most gravitational-wave signals from binary neutron star coalescences are too weak to be individually resolved with current detectors. We demonstrate how to extract a population of sub-threshold binary neutron star signals using Bayesian parameter estimation. Assuming a merger rate of one signal every two hours, we find that this gravitational-wave background can be detected after approximately three months of observation with Advanced LIGO and Virgo at design sensitivity, versus several years using the standard cross-correlation algorithm. We show that the algorithm can distinguish different neutron star equations of state using roughly seven months of Advanced LIGO and Virgo design-sensitivity data. This is in contrast to the standard cross-correlation method, which cannot.

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Francisco Hernandez Vivanco, Rory Smith, Eric Thrane, Paul D. Lasky. 2019-08-06. Accelerated detection of the binary neutron star gravitational-wave background. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.100.043023

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