LIGO-Virgo searches for gravitational waves from coalescing binaries: a status update

TL;DR

This paper provides an update on the LIGO-Virgo collaboration's efforts to detect gravitational waves from coalescing binary systems using various waveform templates tailored to different mass ranges and stages of inspiral.

Contribution

It reports on the current status and future plans of the CBC group's search strategies employing multiple waveform models for different binary mass regimes.

Findings

Use of multiple waveform families depending on mass range

Detection efforts include systems up to 500 solar masses

Ongoing and planned improvements in search sensitivity

Abstract

Coalescing compact binaries of neutron stars and/or black holes are considered as one of the most promising sources for Earth based gravitational wave detectors. The LIGO-Virgo joint collaboration's Compact Binary Coalescence (CBC) group is searching for gravitational waves emitted by these astrophysical systems by matched filtering the data against theoretically modeled template waveforms. A variety of waveform template families are employed depending on the mass range probed by the search and the stage of the inspiral phase targeted: restricted post-Newtonian for systems having total mass less than $35 \msun$, numerical relativity inspired complete inspiral-merger-ringdown waveforms for more massive systems up to $100\msun$ and ringdown templates for modeling perturbed black holes up to $500\msun$. We give a status update on CBC group's current efforts and upcoming plans in detecting signatures of astrophysical gravitational waves.