Matched-filtering and parameter estimation of ringdown waveforms

TL;DR

This paper evaluates the detection and parameter estimation of black hole ringdown signals using numerical relativity, highlighting limitations of current single-mode templates and proposing a two-stage search strategy for improved accuracy and efficiency.

Contribution

It demonstrates the inadequacy of single-mode templates for ringdown detection and proposes a two-stage search method combining detection and multi-mode analysis.

Findings

Advanced LIGO and EGO can detect intermediate-mass black holes up to 1000 solar masses.

Single-mode templates can cause over 10% event loss and large parameter errors.

Second-generation detectors and LISA can perform no-hair tests of black holes.

Abstract

Using recent results from numerical relativity simulations of non-spinning binary black hole mergers we revisit the problem of detecting ringdown waveforms and of estimating the source parameters, considering both LISA and Earth-based interferometers. We find that Advanced LIGO and EGO could detect intermediate-mass black holes of mass up to about 1000 solar masses out to a luminosity distance of a few Gpc. For typical multipolar energy distributions, we show that the single-mode ringdown templates presently used for ringdown searches in the LIGO data stream can produce a significant event loss (> 10% for all detectors in a large interval of black hole masses) and very large parameter estimation errors on the black hole's mass and spin. We estimate that more than 10^6 templates would be needed for a single-stage multi-mode search. Therefore, we recommend a "two stage" search to save on computational costs: single-mode templates can be used for detection, but multi-mode templates or Prony methods should be used to estimate parameters once a detection has been made. We update estimates of the critical signal-to-noise ratio required to test the hypothesis that two or more modes are present in the signal and to resolve their frequencies, showing that second-generation Earth-based detectors and LISA have the potential to perform no-hair tests.