Exploring the sky localization and early warning capabilities of third generation gravitational wave detectors in three-detector network configurations

TL;DR

This study evaluates the sky localization and early warning capabilities of third-generation gravitational wave detector networks, demonstrating their potential for precise localization and early alerts for binary neutron star mergers at various distances.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of different detector network configurations, highlighting the effectiveness of the 1ET2CE setup for localization and early warning.

Findings

The 2ET1CE network localizes 90% of signals within 0.25 deg^2 at 200 Mpc.

Replacing the Australian detector with a Cosmic Explorer reduces localization area to 0.18 deg^2.

Both networks can provide early warnings about 1 hour before merger with localization under 30 deg^2.

Abstract

This work characterises the sky localization and early warning performance of networks of third generation gravitational wave detectors, consisting of different combinations of detectors with either the Einstein Telescope or Cosmic Explorer configuration in sites in North America, Europe and Australia. Using a Fisher matrix method which includes the effect of earth rotation, we estimate the sky localization uncertainty for $1.4\text{M}\odot$-$1.4\text{M}\odot$ binary neutron star mergers at distances $40\text{Mpc}$, $200\text{Mpc}$, $400\text{Mpc}$, $800\text{Mpc}$, $1600\text{Mpc}$, and an assumed astrophysical population up to redshift of 2 to characterize its performance for binary neutron star observations. We find that, for binary neutron star mergers at $200\text{Mpc}$ and a network consisting of the Einstein Telescope, Cosmic Explorer and an extra Einstein Telescope-like detector in Australia(2ET1CE), the upper limit of the size of the 90% credible region for the best localized 90% signals is $0.25\text{deg}^2$. For the simulated astrophysical distribution, this upper limit is $91.79\text{deg}^2$. If the Einstein Telescope-like detector in Australia is replaced with a Cosmic Explorer-like detector(1ET2CE), for $200\text{Mpc}$ case, the upper limit is $0.18\text{deg}^2$, while for astrophysical distribution, it is $56.77\text{deg}^2$. We note that the 1ET2CE network can detect 7.2% more of the simulated astrophysical population than the 2ET1CE network. In terms of early warning performance, we find that a network of 2ET1CE and 1ET2CE networks can both provide early warnings of the order of 1 hour prior to merger with sky localization uncertainties of 30 square degrees or less. Our study concludes that the 1ET2CE network is a good compromise between binary neutron stars detection rate, sky localization and early warning capabilities.