Numerical Relativity Injection Infrastructure

TL;DR

The paper introduces a new NR injection infrastructure in LAL that enables direct use of advanced numerical relativity waveforms, including sub-dominant modes and precessing black hole simulations, for gravitational wave data analysis.

Contribution

It presents a novel interface in LAL that supports complex NR waveforms, improving the realism and accuracy of gravitational wave signal injections.

Findings

Supports sub-dominant modes in NR waveforms

Handles precessing binary black hole simulations

Enables direct use in LIGO data analysis pipelines

Abstract

This document describes the new Numerical Relativity (NR) injection infrastructure in the LIGO Algorithms Library (LAL), which henceforth allows for the usage of NR waveforms as a discrete waveform approximant in LAL. With this new interface, NR waveforms provided in the described format can directly be used as simulated GW signals ("injections") for data analyses, which include parameter estimation, searches, hardware injections etc. As opposed to the previous infrastructure, this new interface natively handles sub-dominant modes and waveforms from numerical simulations of precessing binary black holes, making them directly accessible to LIGO analyses. To correctly handle precessing simulations, the new NR injection infrastructure internally transforms the NR data into the coordinate frame convention used in LAL.