Detecting extreme mass ratio inspirals with LISA using time-frequency methods

TL;DR

This paper presents a computationally efficient time-frequency method for detecting extreme mass ratio inspirals (EMRIs) with LISA, potentially enabling the detection of numerous sources at cosmological distances.

Contribution

It introduces a novel time-frequency detection technique for EMRIs that is more feasible than traditional matched filtering methods.

Findings

Potential detection of EMRIs up to ~2 Gpc away

Estimated tens of EMRI detections per year with this method

Feasibility of hierarchical search approach

Abstract

The inspirals of stellar-mass compact objects into supermassive black holes are some of the most important sources for LISA. Detection techniques based on fully coherent matched filtering have been shown to be computationally intractable. We describe an efficient and robust detection method that utilizes the time-frequency evolution of such systems. We show that a typical extreme mass ratio inspiral (EMRI) source could possibly be detected at distances of up to ~2 Gpc, which would mean ~10s of EMRI sources can be detected per year using this technique. We discuss the feasibility of using this method as a first step in a hierarchical search.