Testing fundamental gravity and validating gravitational waveforms

• Grant number: 14/50259-3
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Duration: March 01, 2015 - February 28, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Physics
• Convênio/Acordo: University of Birmingham
• Principal Investigator: Riccardo Sturani
• Grantee: Riccardo Sturani
• Principal researcher abroad: Alberto Vecchio
• Institution abroad: University of Birmingham, England
• Host Institution: Instituto de Física Teórica (IFT). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de São Paulo. São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 12/14132-3 - Analysis of gravitational waves, AP.JP

Abstract

The gravitational wave astronomy era will start in a few years time, with the most likely candidate source for repeated detection being coalescing binaries made of compact objects like neutron stars and stellar mass black holes. However, for earth-based detectors like LIGO and Virgo the signals are buried deeply within the instrumental noise, thus a detailed knowledge of the signal itself is necessary in order to enhance detection probability and ensure an accurate measure of the source parameters. At the moment there not exist a single waveform model that can be used for ali physical sources, and it is of primary importance for reliable measurements of the source physical parameters to understand the relative performances of the various analytical waveforms. We intend to investigate how the discrepancy between the available analytic waveforms describing the binary system coalescence aftect: the detection, the parameter estimation and the confidence with which detection and parameter estimation can be achieved. We plan to utilise the knowledge acquired with this investigation to eventually develop methods to correct for the observed discrepancies. (AU)