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The Gravitational Wave Universe Toolbox

Astronomy & Astrophysics EDP Sciences 663 (2022) A155-A155

Authors:

Shu-Xu Yi, Gijs Nelemans, Christiaan Brinkerink, Zuzanna Kostrzewa-Rutkowska, Sjoerd T Timmer, Fiorenzo Stoppa, Elena M Rossi, Simon F Portegies Zwart

Abstract:

Context.As the importance of gravitational wave (GW) astrophysics increases rapidly, astronomers interested in GWs who are not experts in this field sometimes need to get a quick idea of what GW sources can be detected by certain detectors, and the accuracy of the measured parameters.Aims.The GW-Toolbox is a set of easy-to-use, flexible tools to simulate observations of the GW universe with different detectors, including ground-based interferometers (advanced LIGO, advanced VIRGO, KAGRA, Einstein Telescope, Cosmic Explorer, and also customised interferometers), space-borne interferometers (LISA and a customised design), and pulsar timing arrays mimicking the current working arrays (EPTA, PPTA, NANOGrav, IPTA) and future ones. We include a broad range of sources, such as mergers of stellar-mass compact objects, namely black holes, neutron stars, and black hole–neutron star binaries, supermassive black hole binary mergers and inspirals, Galactic double white dwarfs in ultra-compact orbit, extreme-mass-ratio inspirals, and stochastic GW backgrounds.Methods.We collected methods to simulate source populations and determine their detectability with various detectors. Our aim is to provide a comprehensive description of the methodology and functionality of the GW-Toolbox.Results.The GW-Toolbox produces results that are consistent with previous findings in the literature, and the tools can be accessed via a website interface or as a Python package. In the future, this package will be upgraded with more functions.
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The Gravitational Wave Universe Toolbox

Astronomy & Astrophysics EDP Sciences 663 (2022) A156-A156

Authors:

Shu-Xu Yi, Fiorenzo Stoppa, Gijs Nelemans, Eric Cator

Abstract:

Context:TheGW-Universe Toolboxis a software package that simulates observations of the gravitational wave (GW) Universe with different types of GW detectors, including Earth-based and space-borne laser interferometers and pulsar timing arrays. It is accessible as a website, and can also be imported and run locally as a Python package.Methods:We employ the method used by theGW-Universe Toolboxto generate a synthetic catalogue of detection of stellar-mass binary black hole (BBH) mergers. As an example of its scientific application, we study how GW observations of BBHs can be used to constrain the merger rate as a function of redshift and masses. We study advanced LIGO (aLIGO) and theEinsteinTelescope (ET) as two representatives of the second and third generation GW observatories, respectively. We also simulate the observations from a detector that is half as sensitive as the ET at its nominal designed sensitivity, which represents an early phase of the ET. We used two methods to obtain the constraints on the source population properties from the catalogues: the first uses a parameteric differential merger rate model and applies a Bayesian inference on the parameters; the other is non-parameteric and uses weighted Kernel density estimators.Results:Our results show the overwhelming advantages of the third generation detector over those of the second generation for the study of BBH population properties, especially at redshifts higher than ∼2, where the merger rate is believed to peak. With the simulated aLIGO catalogue, the parameteric Bayesian method can still give some constraints on the merger rate density and mass function beyond its detecting horizon, while the non-parametric method loses the constraining ability completely there. The difference is due to the extra information placed by assuming a specific parameterisation of the population model in the Bayesian method. In the non-parameteric method, no assumption of the general shape of the merger rate density and mass function are placed, not even the assumption of its smoothness. These two methods represent the two extreme situations of general population reconstruction. We also find that, despite the numbers of detected events of the half ET can easily be compatible with full ET after a longer observation duration, and the catalogue from the full ET can still give much better constraints on the population properties due to its smaller uncertainties on the physical parameters of the GW events.
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The halo of M 105 and its group environment as traced by planetary nebula populations

Astronomy & Astrophysics EDP Sciences 663 (2022) a12

Authors:

J Hartke, M Arnaboldi, O Gerhard, L Coccato, M Merrifield, K Kuijken, C Pulsoni, A Agnello, S Bhattacharya, C Spiniello, A Cortesi, KC Freeman, NR Napolitano, AJ Romanowsky
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The role of redundancy in blind signal estimation for multiple gravitational wave detectors

World Scientific Publishing (2022) 71-83

Authors:

Hao Liu, James Creswell, Sebastian von Hausegger, Pavel Naselsky, Andrew D Jackson
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The science case and challenges of space-borne sub-millimeter interferometry

Acta Astronautica Elsevier 196 (2022) 314-333

Authors:

Leonid I Gurvits, Zsolt Paragi, Ricardo I Amils, Ilse van Bemmel, Paul Boven, Viviana Casasola, John Conway, Jordy Davelaar, M Carmen Díez-González, Heino Falcke, Rob Fender, Sándor Frey, Christian M Fromm, Juan D Gallego-Puyol, Cristina García-Miró, Michael A Garrett, Marcello Giroletti, Ciriaco Goddi, José L Gómez, Jeffrey van der Gucht, José Carlos Guirado, Zoltán Haiman, Frank Helmich, Ben Hudson, Elizabeth Humphreys, Violette Impellizzeri, Michael Janssen, Michael D Johnson, Yuri Y Kovalev, Michael Kramer, Michael Lindqvist, Hendrik Linz, Elisabetta Liuzzo, Andrei P Lobanov, Isaac López-Fernández, Inmaculada Malo-Gómez, Kunal Masania, Yosuke Mizuno, Alexander V Plavin, Raj T Rajan, Luciano Rezzolla, Freek Roelofs, Eduardo Ros, Kazi LJ Rygl, Tuomas Savolainen, Karl Schuster, Tiziana Venturi, Marjolein Verkouter, Pablo de Vicente, Pieter NAM Visser, Martina C Wiedner, Maciek Wielgus, Kaj Wiik, J Anton Zensus
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