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Improved time–frequency analysis of extreme-mass-ratio inspiral signals in mock LISA data

Jonathan R Gair1, Ilya Mandel2 and Linqing Wen3,4,5

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The planned Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) is expected to detect gravitational wave signals from ~100 extreme-mass-ratio inspirals (EMRIs) of stellar-mass compact objects into massive black holes. The long duration and large parameter space of EMRI signals make data analysis for these signals a challenging problem. One approach to EMRI data analysis is to use time–frequency methods. This consists of two steps: (i) searching for tracks from EMRI sources in a time–frequency spectrogram and (ii) extracting parameter estimates from the tracks. In this paper we discuss the results of applying these techniques to the latest round of the Mock LISA Data Challenge, Round 1B. This analysis included three new techniques not used in previous analyses: (i) a new chirp-based algorithm for track search for track detection; (ii) estimation of the inclination of the source to the line of sight; (iii) a Metropolis–Hastings Monte Carlo over the parameter space in order to find the best fit to the tracks.


PACS

04.80.Nn Gravitational wave detectors and experiments

95.55.Ym Gravitational radiation detectors; mass spectrometers; and other instrumentation and techniques

97.60.Lf Black holes

95.75.-z Observation and data reduction techniques; computer modeling and simulation

97.60.Jd Neutron stars

MSC

83C35 Gravitational waves

83C57 Black holes

85A15 Galactic and stellar structure

Subjects

Instrumentation and measurement

Gravitation and cosmology

Astrophysics and astroparticles

Dates

Issue 18 (21 September 2008)

Received 31 March 2008, in final form 29 June 2008

Published 2 September 2008



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