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Anand S. Sengupta

Publications and source records attributed to Anand S. Sengupta.

33 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Effectual gravitational-wave template banks for coalescing compact binaries using a hybrid placement algorithm

Recent discoveries of gravitational wave (GW) signals from astrophysical compact binary systems of neutron stars and black holes have firmly established them as prime sources for advanced GW detectors. Theoretical templates of expected signals from such systems have been used to filter the detector data using the \emph{matched filtering} technique. An efficient grid over the parameter space at a fixed minimal match has a direct impact on improving the computational efficiency of these searches. We present the construction of three-dimensional template banks (in component masses and an effective spin parameter) by incorporating several new optimizations to the hybrid geometric-random template placement algorithm that we proposed recently. These optimizations allow us to create more efficient template banks in future compact binary searches by shrinking the hybrid banks by $\sim 34\%$ in comparison to the basic algorithm. Such optimized banks are also found to be $\sim 22\%$ smaller than the optimized stochastic bank constructed over a nominal range of parameters. We also construct an explicit hybrid template bank with parameters identical to the `uber-bank' used in the recently-concluded CBC searches in the second observation run of the Advanced LIGO and Virgo detectors. We demonstrate a reduction of more than 53,000 templates over the stochastic template bank at a near-identical coverage as determined by fitting factor studies. A computationally efficient technique for semi-numerical calculation of the parameter space metric, applicable for aligned-spin waveform family, is also outlined. The resulting hybrid template banks can be generated much faster in comparison to the stochastic banks, and are ready to be used in the upcoming observation runs of Advanced LIGO and Virgo.

gr-qc↗

Hybrid geometric-random template placement algorithm for gravitational wave searches from compact binary coalescences

Astrophysical compact binary systems consisting of neutron stars and blackholes are an important class of gravitational wave (GW) sources for advanced LIGO detectors. Accurate theoretical waveform models from the inspiral, merger and ringdown phases of such systems, are used to filter detector data under the template based matched filtering paradigm. An efficient grid over the parameter space at a fixed minimal match has a direct impact on the overall time taken by these searches. We present a new hybrid geometric-random template placement algorithm for signals described by two masses and one spin magnitude parameters. Such template banks could potentially be used in GW searches from binary neutron stars and neutron star-blackhole systems. The template placement is robust and is able to automatically accommodate curvature and boundary effects with no fine tuning. We also compare these banks against vanilla-stochastic template banks and show that while both are equally efficient in the fitting-factor sense, the bank sizes are $\sim 25 \%$ larger in the stochastic method. Further, we show that the generation of the proposed hybrid banks can be sped-up by nearly an order of magnitude over the stochastic bank. Generic issues related to optimal implementation are discussed in detail. These improvements are expected to directly reduce the computational cost of gravitational wave searches.

gr-qc↗

Least square ellipsoid fitting using iterative orthogonal transformations

We describe a generalised method for ellipsoid fitting against a minimum set of data points. The proposed method is numerically stable and applies to a wide range of ellipsoidal shapes, including highly elongated and arbitrarily oriented ellipsoids. This new method also provides for the retrieval of rotational angle and length of semi-axes of the fitted ellipsoids accurately. We demonstrate the efficacy of this algorithm on simulated data sets and also indicate its potential use in gravitational wave data analysis.

cs.CV↗

Autonomous Dome for Robotic Telescope

Physical Research Laboratory operates a 50cm robotic observatory at Mount Abu. This Automated Telescope for Variability Studies (ATVS) makes use of Remote Telescope System 2 (RTS2) for autonomous operations. The observatory uses a 3.5m dome from Sirius Observatories. We have developed electronics using Arduino electronic circuit boards with home grown logic and software to control the dome operations. We are in the process of completing the drivers to link our Arduino based dome controller with RTS2. This document is a short description of the various phases of the development and their integration to achieve the required objective.

astro-ph.IM↗

Exploring viscous damping in undergraduate Physics laboratory using electromagnetically coupled oscillators

We design a low-cost, electromagnetically coupled, simple harmonic oscillator and demonstrate free, damped and forced oscillations in an under-graduate (UG) Physics laboratory. It consists of a spring-magnet system that can oscillate inside a cylinder around which copper coils are wound. Such demonstrations can compliment the traditional way in which a Waves & Oscillations course is taught and offers a richer pedagogical experience for students. We also show that with minimal modifications, it can be used to probe the magnitude of viscous damping forces in liquids by analyzing the oscillations of an immersed magnet. Finally, we propose some student activities to explore non-linear damping effects and their characterization using this apparatus.

physics.ed-ph↗

LIGO-Virgo searches for gravitational waves from coalescing binaries: a status update

Coalescing compact binaries of neutron stars and/or black holes are considered as one of the most promising sources for Earth based gravitational wave detectors. The LIGO-Virgo joint collaboration's Compact Binary Coalescence (CBC) group is searching for gravitational waves emitted by these astrophysical systems by matched filtering the data against theoretically modeled template waveforms. A variety of waveform template families are employed depending on the mass range probed by the search and the stage of the inspiral phase targeted: restricted post-Newtonian for systems having total mass less than $35 \msun$, numerical relativity inspired complete inspiral-merger-ringdown waveforms for more massive systems up to $100\msun$ and ringdown templates for modeling perturbed black holes up to $500\msun$. We give a status update on CBC group's current efforts and upcoming plans in detecting signatures of astrophysical gravitational waves.

gr-qc↗

CMB power spectrum estimation with non-circular beam and incomplete sky coverage

Over the last decade, measurements of the CMB anisotropy has spearheaded the remarkable transition of cosmology into a precision science. However, addressing the systematic effects in the increasingly sensitive, high resolution, `full' sky measurements from different CMB experiments pose a stiff challenge. The analysis techniques must not only be computationally fast to contend with the huge size of the data, but, the higher sensitivity also limits the simplifying assumptions which can then be invoked to achieve the desired speed without compromising the final precision goals. While maximum likelihood is desirable, the enormous computational cost makes the suboptimal method of power spectrum estimation using Pseudo-C_l unavoidable for high resolution data. We provide a (semi)analytic framework to estimate bias in the power spectrum due to the effect of beam non-circularity and non-uniform sky coverage including incomplete/masked sky maps and scan strategy. The approach is perturbative in the distortion of the beam from non-circularity, allowing for rapid computations when the beam is mildly non-circular. We advocate that it is computationally advantageous to employ `soft' azimuthally apodized masks whose spherical harmonic transform die down fast with m. We numerically implement our method for non-rotating beams. We present preliminary estimates of the computational cost to evaluate the bias for the upcoming CMB anisotropy probes l_max~3000, with angular resolution comparable to the Planck surveyor mission. We further show that this implementation and estimate is applicable for rotating beams on equal declination scans and possibly can be extended to simple approximations to other scan strategies.

astro-ph↗

A geometric algorithm for efficient coincident detection of gravitational waves

Data from a network of gravitational wave detectors can be analyzed in coincidence to increase detection confidence and reduce non-stationarity of the background. We propose and explore a geometric algorithm to combine the data from a network of detectors. The algorithm makes optimal use of the variances and covariances that exist amongst the different parameters of a signal in a coincident detection of events. The new algorithm essentially associates with each trigger ellipsoidal regions in parameter space defined by the covariance matrix. Triggers from different detectors are deemed to be in coincidence if their ellipsoids have a non-zero overlap. Compared to an algorithm that uses uncorrelated windows separately for each of the signal parameters, the new algorithm greatly reduces the background rate thereby increasing detection efficiency at a given false alarm rate.

gr-qc↗

Binary black hole spectroscopy

We study parameter estimation with post-Newtonian (PN) gravitational waveforms for the quasi-circular, adiabatic inspiral of spinning binary compact objects. The performance of amplitude-corrected waveforms is compared with that of the more commonly used restricted waveforms, in Advanced LIGO and EGO. With restricted waveforms, the properties of the source can only be extracted from the phasing. For amplitude-corrected waveforms, the spectrum encodes a wealth of additional information, which leads to dramatic improvements in parameter estimation. At distances of $\sim 100$ Mpc, the full PN waveforms allow for high-accuracy parameter extraction for total mass up to several hundred solar masses, while with the restricted ones the errors are steep functions of mass, and accurate parameter estimation is only possible for relatively light stellar mass binaries. At the low-mass end, the inclusion of amplitude corrections reduces the error on the time of coalescence by an order of magnitude in Advanced LIGO and a factor of 5 in EGO compared to the restricted waveforms; at higher masses these differences are much larger. The individual component masses, which are very poorly determined with restricted waveforms, become measurable with high accuracy if amplitude-corrected waveforms are used, with errors as low as a few percent in Advanced LIGO and a few tenths of a percent in EGO. The usual spin-orbit parameter $β$ is also poorly determined with restricted waveforms (except for low-mass systems in EGO), but the full waveforms give errors that are small compared to the largest possible value consistent with the Kerr bound. This suggests a way of finding out if one or both of the component objects violate this bound. We also briefly discuss the effect of amplitude corrections on parameter estimation in Initial LIGO.

gr-qc↗

Phenomenology of amplitude-corrected post-Newtonian gravitational waveforms for compact binary inspiral. I. Signal-to-noise ratios

We study the phenomenological consequences of amplitude-corrected post-Newtonian (PN) gravitational waveforms, as opposed to the more commonly used restricted PN waveforms, for the quasi-circular, adiabatic inspiral of compact binary objects. In the case of initial detectors it has been shown that the use of amplitude-corrected waveforms for detection templates would lead to significantly lower signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) than those suggested by simulations based exclusively on restricted waveforms. We further elucidate the origin of the effect by an in-depth analytic treatment. The discussion is extended to advanced detectors, where new features emerge. Non-restricted waveforms are linear combinations of harmonics in the orbital phase, and in the frequency domain the $k$th harmonic is cut off at $k f_{LSO}$, with $f_{LSO}$ the orbital frequency at the last stable orbit. As a result, with non-restricted templates it is possible to achieve sizeable signal-to-noise ratios in cases where the dominant harmonic (which is the one at twice the orbital phase) does not enter the detector's bandwidth. This will have important repercussions on the detection of binary inspirals involving intermediate-mass black holes. For sources at a distance of 100 Mpc, taking into account the higher harmonics will double the mass reach of Advanced LIGO, and that of EGO gets tripled. Conservative estimates indicate that the restricted waveforms underestimate detection rates for intermediate mass binary inspirals by at least a factor of twenty.

gr-qc↗

CMB power spectrum estimation using noncircular beams

The measurements of the angular power spectrum of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropy has proved crucial to the emergence of cosmology as a precision science in recent years. In this remarkable data rich period, the limitations to precision now arise from the the inability to account for finer systematic effects in data analysis. The non-circularity of the experimental beam has become progressively important as CMB experiments strive to attain higher angular resolution and sensitivity. We present an analytic framework for studying the leading order effects of a non-circular beam on the CMB power spectrum estimation. We consider a non-circular beam of fixed shape but variable orientation. We compute the bias in the pseudo-$C_l$ power spectrum estimator and then construct an unbiased estimator using the bias matrix. The covariance matrix of the unbiased estimator is computed for smooth, non-circular beams. Quantitative results are shown for CMB maps made by a \emph{hypothetical} experiment with a non-circular beam comparable to our fits to the WMAP beam maps described in the appendix and uses a \emph{toy} scan strategy. We find that significant effects on CMB power spectrum can arise due to non-circular beam on multipoles comparable to, and beyond, the inverse average beam-width where the pseudo-$C_l$ approach may be the method of choice due to computational limitations of analyzing the large datasets from current and near future CMB experiments.

astro-ph↗

Relativistic anisotropic charged fluid spheres with varying cosmological constant

Static spherically symmetric anisotropic source has been studied for the Einstein-Maxwell field equations assuming the erstwhile cosmological constant $ Λ$ to be a space-variable scalar, viz., $ Λ= Λ(r) $. Two cases have been examined out of which one reduces to isotropic sphere. The solutions thus obtained are shown to be electromagnetic in origin as a particular case. It is also shown that the generally used pure charge condition, viz., $ ρ+ p_r = 0 $ is not always required for constructing electromagnetic mass models.

gr-qc↗

A faster implementation of the hierarchical search algorithm for detection of gravitational waves from inspiraling compact binaries

The first scientific runs of kilometer scale laser interferometric detectors like LIGO are underway. Data from these detectors will be used to look for signatures of gravitational waves (GW) from astrophysical objects like inspiraling neutron star/blackhole binaries using matched filtering. The computational resources required for online flat-search implementation of the matched filtering are large if searches are carried out for small total mass. In this paper we report an improved implementation of the hierarchical search, wherein we extend the domain of hierarchy to an extra dimension - namely the time of arrival of the signal in the bandwidth of the interferometer. This is accomplished by lowering the Nyquist sampling rate of the signal in the trigger stage. We show that this leads to further improvement in the efficiency of data analysis and speeds up the online computation by a factor of $\sim 65 - 70$ over the flat search. We also take into account and discuss issues related to template placement, trigger thresholds and other peculiar problems that do not arise in earlier implementation schemes of the hierarchical search. We present simulation results for 2PN waveforms embedded in the noise expected for initial LIGO detectors.

gr-qc↗

Extended hierarchical search (EHS) algorithm for detection of gravitational waves from inspiraling compact binaries

Pattern matching techniques like matched filtering will be used for online extraction of gravitational wave signals buried inside detector noise. This involves cross correlating the detector output with hundreds of thousands of templates spanning a multi-dimensional parameter space, which is very expensive computationally. A faster implementation algorithm was devised by Mohanty and Dhurandhar [1996] using a hierarchy of templates over the mass parameters, which speeded up the procedure by about 25 to 30 times. We show that a further reduction in computational cost is possible if we extend the hierarchy paradigm to an extra parameter, namely, the time of arrival of the signal. In the first stage, the chirp waveform is cut-off at a relatively low frequency allowing the data to be coarsely sampled leading to cost saving in performing the FFTs. This is possible because most of the signal power is at low frequencies, and therefore the advantage due to hierarchy over masses is not compromised. Results are obtained for spin-less templates up to the second post-Newtonian (2PN) order for a single detector with LIGO I noise power spectral density. We estimate that the gain in computational cost over a flat search is about 100.

gr-qc↗