arXiv subjects

Soichiro Morisaki

Publications and source records attributed to Soichiro Morisaki.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Ringdown analysis of GW250114 with orthonormal modes

GW250114 is the loudest gravitational wave event to date observed by LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaboration. Owing to its high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), previous analyses based on quasinormal mode (QNM) superpositions have suggested evidence of the fundamental and the first overtone of the $\ell=m=2$ mode in this event. However, QNMs are not orthogonal and the inclusion of multiple QNMs induces correlations among them, which can hinder the robust identification of subdominant QNMs. To address this challenge, we apply an analysis based on orthonormalized QNMs [S. Morisaki $\textit{et al.}$, Phys. Rev. D $\textbf{112}$, 124083 (2025)] to GW250114. We find that, in the model including three $\ell=m=2$ QNMs up to the second overtone, the first overtone of the $\ell=m=2$ mode is more strongly supported than in previous nonorthogonal analyses, with the inferred significance increasing from $82.5\%$ to $99.9\%$. Furthermore, we estimate deviations from the Kerr prediction using the orthonormal QNM framework and find no significant deviation, consistent with previous analyses. These results demonstrate that the orthonormal QNM framework provides a more robust way to identify subdominant modes in high-SNR ringdown signals, highlighting its potential for future gravitational wave observations.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2026

Evaluating KAGRA upgrade scenarios for multimessenger observations of binary neutron stars

Binary neutron star mergers are key targets for multimessenger astronomy, motivating future upgrades of gravitational-wave detectors. For KAGRA, both broadband sensitivity improvements that increase the binary neutron star detection range, and high-frequency optimizations targeting neutron-star physics are under consideration. We present a computationally efficient framework to evaluate the multimessenger performance of detector upgrades by combining Fisher-matrix estimates of localization area and localization volume with detector duty factors and binary neutron star merger rates. We apply this framework to proposed KAGRA upgrade scenarios within the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA network. For identical sources, the high-frequency upgrade improves sky localization by about 20% compared with the broadband option. However, when detection rates are taken into account, the broadband upgrade yields a larger number of well-localized events. Despite its shorter binary neutron star range than the other detectors, the inclusion of KAGRA increases the number of events localized within $10^3$ Mpc$^3$ volume by about 60%. These results provide a quantitative framework for evaluating future detector upgrades from the perspective of multimessenger observations.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2026

Method to get Better Sky Maps in a GstLAL Low-Latency Analysis

Modeled gravitational wave searches correlate the strain data with a bank of gravitational wave template waveforms to make detections of gravitational wave candidates, and these results are processed by downstream tools to calculate the likely sky location and distance of the source of the candidates. This is crucial for multi-messenger efforts, since it informs astronomers where to point their telescopes to facilitate electromagnetic follow-up of the gravitational wave candidates. We present a novel method to improve the low-latency results of the GstLAL gravitational wave search pipeline, and thus improving sky location estimates of low-latency candidates. This method involves ingesting the GstLAL low-latency results, and performing a small targeted hierarchical search to recover the candidates with more accurate parameters, in a medium-latency timescale (few seconds to five minutes). To test our method, we perform a GstLAL low-latency analysis on forty days of data from the third observing run of LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA, and show that our method improves the GstLAL results by 5.38% and the subsequent sky location results by 16.75% on average. In addition to this increase in precision, we also show that these results are more accurate as compared to the GstLAL results. This method has been adopted by GstLAL for the fourth observing run.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2026

GstLAL O4 Online Results Paper

Gravitational-wave observations of merging binary neutron stars and black holes are now routinely made by detectors in the Advanced LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA network. Neutron star binary systems may also produce detectable electromagnetic and particle emission over times scales ranging from seconds to years. Real-time gravitational-wave searches play a central role in enabling time-critical electromagnetic and/or neutrino follow-up observations. During the fourth observing run (O4) of the Advanced LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA network, multiple real-time searches operated continuously to identify candidate gravitational-wave events and publicly disseminate information about these discoveries. Here, the performance and results of the GstLAL real-time analysis are reported. The analysis is designed to identify candidates with low latency, high detection efficiency, and sustained operational uptime over long observing periods. Across O4, it produced initial candidate uploads with a median latency of 15.8 s while maintaining an effective uptime of 98% during the first two parts of the observing run. During the run, the analysis contributed to 250 candidates classified as astrophysically plausible, provided the first upload for 222 of these, and was the sole contributor for 75. Among Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog events with a false-alarm rate below one per year, 88% were identified as significant in low latency and promoted for expert vetting and public dissemination. The low-latency astrophysical classifications agreed with the final catalog classifications for 93% of the events considered.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2026

How Many Times Should We Matched Filter Gravitational Wave Data? A Comparison of GstLAL's Online and Offline Performance

Searches for gravitational waves from compact binary coalescences employ a process called matched filtering, in which gravitational wave strain data is cross-correlated against a bank of waveform templates. Data from every observing run of the LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA collaboration is typically analyzed in this way twice, first in a low-latency mode in which gravitational wave candidates are identified in near-real time, and later in a high-latency mode. Such high-latency analyses have traditionally been considered more sensitive, since background data from the full observing run is available for assigning significance to all candidates, as well as more robust, since they do not need to worry about keeping up with live data. In this work, we present a novel technique to use the matched filtering data products from a low-latency analysis and re-process them by assigning significances in a high-latency way, effectively removing the need to perform matched filtering a second time. To demonstrate the efficacy of our method, we analyze 38 days of LIGO and Virgo data from the third observing run (O3) using the GstLAL pipeline, and show that our method is as sensitive and reliable as a traditional high-latency analysis. Since matched filtering represents the vast majority of computing time for a traditional analysis, our method greatly reduces the time and computational burden required to produce the same results as a traditional high-latency analysis. Consequently, it has already been adopted by GstLAL for the fourth observing run (O4) of the LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA collaboration.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2026

New Methods for Offline GstLAL Analyses

In this work, we present new methods implemented in the GstLAL offline gravitational wave search. These include a technique to reuse the matched filtering data products from a GstLAL online analysis, which hugely reduces the time and computational resources required to obtain offline results; a technique to combine these results with a separate search for heavier black hole mergers, enabling detections from a larger set of gravitational wave sources; changes to the likelihood ratio which increases the sensitivity of the analysis; and two separate changes to the background estimation, allowing more precise significance estimation of gravitational wave candidates. Some of these methods increase the sensitivity of the analysis, whereas others correct previous mis-estimations of sensitivity by eliminating false positives. These methods have been adopted for GstLAL's offline results during the fourth observing run of LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA (O4). To test these new methods, we perform an offline analysis over one chunk of O3 data, lasting from May 12 19:36:42 UTC 2019 to May 21 14:45:08 UTC 2019, and compare it with previous GstLAL results over the same period of time. We show that cumulatively these methods afford around a 50% - 100% increase in sensitivity in the highest mass space, while simultaneously increasing the reliability of results, and making them more reusable and computationally cheaper.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2026

Simulation-based Inference for Gravitational Waves from Binary Neutron Stars: Application of Summary Data from Heterodyning

Gravitational-wave parameter estimation for binary neutron star (BNS) systems poses severe computational challenges due to the extended signal duration, which can reach several minutes in current detectors. Neural posterior estimation (NPE), a simulation-based inference approach, offers dramatic speedups but requires effective dimensionality reduction of the high-dimensional input data. We present a novel compression strategy based on likelihood-oriented summary statistics derived from the relative binning formalism of Zackay et al. (2018), which compresses raw frequency-domain data into the summary data. The summary data is based on a polynomial approximation of the waveform ratio using frequency banding grounded in post-Newtonian approximation, and directly evaluated with only $O(1000)$ sample points of the waveform. As a result, both the training and storage cost become more efficient than previously reported networks for BNS inference. We train a set of NPE networks on these summary statistics and validate a network against traditional nested sampling over 1024 BNS injections. The network produces well-calibrated posteriors across all source parameters we consider, with Jensen-Shannon divergences (JSD) consistent with numerical noise for most parameters. Although we find that the median JSD for the most inconsistent parameter exceeds $10^{-2}$ bits with current configurations, our results show potential for rapid parameter estimation of the BNS signal.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2026

Jiggled interferometer: Ground-based gravitational wave detector using rapidly-repeated free-falling test masses

We propose the Jiggled Interferometer (JIGI), a novel ground-based gravitational wave detector employing low-frequency noise mitigation similar to that of space-based detectors. Using rapidly-repeated free-fall test masses, JIGI eliminates seismic and suspension thermal noise during free fall. Compared to the Juggled Interferometer, it offers improved angular stability and avoids tracking lasers. We analyze detrending -- a required step to remove actuation-induced noise -- and show sensitivity gains of about four orders of magnitude in the 0.1-0.3 Hz band, relative to seismic and suspension noise extrapolated from the Cosmic Explorer.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2026

Efficient Reconstruction of Matched-Filter Signal-to-Noise Ratio Time Series from Nearby Templates for Compact Binary Coalescences Searches

We present a method for efficiently searching long-duration gravitational wave signals from compact binary coalescences (CBCs). The approach exploits the smooth frequency-domain behavior of ratios between neighboring waveform templates. The matched-filter signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) time series of a data segment is first computed for a reference template, and the SNRs of nearby templates are then reconstructed by convolving this reference SNR time series with the ratio waveforms, defined as the frequency-domain ratios between the reference and neighboring templates. The computational speedup arises because the ratio waveforms can be safely truncated: they are significant only over a short interval approximately equal to the duration difference between the templates. Storing these truncated ratio waveforms is practical and enables additional efficiency gains, in contrast to storing full templates, which is generally infeasible for long-duration, low-mass signals. We demonstrate the efficacy of the method with mock non-spinning CBC injections in the $1-3~M_\odot$ range. The reconstructed SNR time series agrees with that obtained from standard matched filtering to an accuracy of $O(10^{-4})$, while the relative computational cost is reduced by $\gtrsim 25\%$. With a truncation threshold of $10^{-3}$ applied to the ratio waveform amplitudes, the storage requirement is reduced by a factor of $\sim 60$ relative to storing the full template bank.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2026

Analyzing black-hole ringdowns with orthonormal modes

The ringdown signal following a black hole (BH) merger can be modeled as a superposition of BH quasinormal modes (QNMs), offering a clean setup for testing gravitational theories. In particular, detecting multiple QNMs enables consistency checks of their frequencies and damping times, serving as a test of general relativity -- a technique known as black hole spectroscopy. However, incorporating additional QNMs introduces challenges such as increased parameter correlations and higher computational costs in data analysis. To address this, we propose an efficient Bayesian analysis method that applies the Gram-Schmidt algorithm to the QNMs. This reduces the correlation between the modes and enables analytic marginalization over the mode amplitudes. We validate our approach using damped sinusoids and numerical waveforms from the Simulating eXtreme Spacetimes catalog.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2026

Impact of Spin Priors on the Population Inference of Merging Binary Black Holes

The spins of merging binary black holes (BBHs) inferred from gravitational-wave (GW) observations provide key insights into their formation channels. However, spin parameters are typically weakly constrained from data, and their inferred values are often strongly influenced by the assumed prior in Bayesian analyses. A commonly used prior, uniform in spin magnitudes and isotropic in spin directions, assigns vanishing probability density to spin-orbit-aligned configurations, potentially biasing inferences for BBH parameters. The prior choice can also affect population-level analyses by degrading the convergence of Monte Carlo integrations used to evaluate the likelihood in hierarchical Bayesian inference. In this work, we propose a novel spin prior that is uniform in the effective spin parameters Xeff and Xp, two spin combinations that can be relatively well measured from GW data, conditioned on the mass ratio. Using simulated BBH populations, we show that the inferred spin population can depend on the choice of prior, and that the proposed prior more accurately recovers the underlying spin population, particularly when the true distribution favors aligned-spin configurations. Because mass and spin measurements are correlated, our prior also enables a more accurate recovery of the underlying mass distribution.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2026

GW231109_235456: A Sub-threshold Binary Neutron Star Merger in the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA O4a Observing Run?

We present a subthreshold search for gravitational-wave inspirals from binary neutron stars using data from the first part of the fourth observing run of the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaboration. To enhance sensitivity to this targeted population, we incorporate a redshift-corrected population model informed by radio observations of Galactic double neutron star systems. The search identifies a significant trigger with a false-alarm rate of one per fifty years and a network signal-to-noise ratio of 9.7. This trigger was first reported in low-latency processing as S231109ci and subsequently listed in the GWTC-4.0 catalog as GW231109_235456, a subthreshold candidate. Accounting for a trials factor of five arising from four previous searches in GWTC-4.0 and this new search, the false-alarm rate of the candidate is approximately one per ten years. If the event is of astrophysical origin, the inferred source properties indicate component masses of 1.40 to 2.24 solar masses for the primary and 0.97 to 1.49 solar masses for the secondary, yielding a total mass of 2.95 solar masses with an uncertainty of plus 0.38 and minus 0.07 solar masses. The event is localized to a region of 450 square degrees enclosing ninety percent probability at a luminosity distance of 165 megaparsecs with an uncertainty of plus 70 and minus 69 megaparsecs. Assuming the signal arises from a binary neutron star merger, we estimate the local merger rate to lie between 53 and 342 per cubic gigaparsec per year.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2025

Parameter estimation of gravitational-wave signals with frequency-dependent antenna responses and higher modes

We implement frequency-dependent antenna responses and develop likelihood classes (standard likelihood, multibanded likelihood, and the relative binning (RB) likelihood) capable of handling the same within the framework of \texttt{Bilby}. We validate the approximate likelihoods by comparing them with the exact likelihood for a GW170817-like signal (signal-to-noise ratio ~ 1900) containing higher-order modes of radiation. We use the relative-binning likelihood to perform parameter estimation (PE) for a GW170817-like signal, including Earth-rotation effects, detector-size effects, and higher-order modes. We study the system in several detector networks consisting of a single 40 km Cosmic Explorer, a 20 km CE and a present-generation detector at A+ sensitivity. The PE runs with RB take around a day to complete on a typical cluster.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2025

Template bank for sub solar mass compact binary mergers in the fourth observing run of Advanced LIGO, Advanced Virgo, and KAGRA

Matched-filtering searches for gravitational-wave signals from compact binary mergers employ template banks which are a collection of modeled waveforms described by unique intrinsic parameters. We present two banks designed for low-latency and archive sub-solar mass (SSM) searches in data from the fourth observing run of LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA, and demonstrate the efficacy of the banks via simulated signals. Further, we introduce a set of modifications to the geometric, manifold algorithm that allow the method to work for exceedingly low component masses necessary for SSM bank production. The archive search bank contains a total of $3,452,006$ templates, and covers a mass parameter space of $0.2$ to $10\ M_\odot$ in the larger component and $0.2$ to $1.0\ M_\odot$ in the smaller component, the spin parameter space of $-0.9$ to $0.9$ for masses above $0.5$ $M_\odot$ and $-0.1$ to $0.1$ for masses below $0.5$ $M_\odot$, and the mass ratio parameter space of $1$ to $10$. The PSD used was from a week of the first half of the fourth observing run of Advanced LIGO, Advanced Virgo, and KAGRA, and the low frequency cutoff was set to $45$ Hz with a maximum waveform duration of $128$ seconds. The bank simulations performed using SBank have shown that the banks presented in this paper have sufficient efficacy for use in their respective searches.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2025

Enhancing the sensitivity to ultralight bosonic dark matter using signal correlations

In recent years, numerous experiments have been proposed and conducted to search for ultralight bosonic dark matter (ULBDM). Signals from ULBDM in such experiments are characterized by extremely narrow spectral widths. A near-optimal detection strategy is to divide the data based on the signal coherence time and sum the power across these segments. However, the signal coherence time can extend beyond a day, making it challenging to construct contiguous segments of such a duration due to detector instabilities. In this work, we present a novel detection statistic that can coherently extract ULBDM signals from segments of arbitrary durations. Our detection statistic, which we refer to as coherent SNR, is a weighed sum of data correlations, whose weights are determined by the expected signal correlations. We demonstrate that coherent SNR achieves sensitivity independent of segment duration and surpasses the performance of the conventional incoherent-sum approach, through analytical arguments and numerical experiments.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2025

Searches for ultralight vector and axion dark matter with KAGRA

We have proposed using laser interferometric gravitational wave detectors to search for ultralight vector and axion dark matter. Vector dark matter can be probed through oscillating forces on suspended mirrors, while axion dark matter can be detected via oscillating polarization rotation of laser beams. This paper reviews these searches with the KAGRA detector in Japan, including the first vector dark matter search with KAGRA's 2020 data and installation of polarization optics for axion dark matter search during the upcoming 2025 observing run.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2024

An analytical joint prior for effective spins for inference on the spin distribution of binary black holes

We derive an analytical form of the joint prior of effective spin parameters, $χ_\mathrm{eff}$ and $χ_\mathrm{p}$, assuming an isotropic and uniform-in-magnitude spin distribution. This is a vital factor in performing hierarchical Bayesian inference for studying the population properties of merging compact binaries observed with gravitational waves. In previous analyses, this was evaluated numerically using kernel density estimation (KDE). However, we find that this numerical approach is inaccurate in certain parameter regions, where both $|χ_\mathrm{eff}|$ and $χ_\mathrm{p}$ are small. Our analytical approach provides accurate computations of the joint prior across the entire parameter space and enables more reliable population inference. Employing our analytic prior, we reanalyze binary black holes in the Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog 3 (GWTC-3) by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration. While the results are largely unchanged, log-likelihood errors due to the use of the inaccurate prior evaluations are $\mathcal{O}(1)$. Since these errors accumulate with the increasing number of events, our analytical prior will be crucial in the future analyses.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2024

Searching for asymmetric and heavily precessing Binary Black Holes in the gravitational wave data from the LIGO and Virgo third Observing Run

Leveraging the features of the GstLAL pipeline, we present the results of a matched filtering search for asymmetric binary black hole systems with heavily misaligned spins in LIGO and Virgo data taken during the third observing run. Our target systems show strong imprints of precession whereas current searches have non-optimal sensitivity in detecting them. After measuring the sensitivity improvement brought by our search over standard spin-aligned searches, we report the detection of 30 gravitational wave events already discovered in the latest version of the Gravitational Wave Transient Catalog. However, we do not find any additional significant gravitational wave candidates. Our results allow us to place an upper limit of $R_{90\%} = 0.28^{+0.33}_{-0.04}\;\; \mathrm{Gpc^{-3}yr^{-1}}$ on the merger rate of a hypothetical subpopulation of asymmetric, heavily precessing signals, not identified by other searches. Since our upper limit is consistent with the latest rate estimates from the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration, our findings rule out the existence of a yet-to-be-discovered population of precessing binaries.

gr-qc↗