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General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology, gr-qc
Abstract:
Searching for gravitational waves (GWs) from binary black holes (BBHs) with
LIGO and Virgo involves matched-filtering data against a set of representative
signal waveforms --- a template bank --- chosen to cover the full signal space
of interest with as few template waveforms as possible. Although the component
black holes may have significant angular momenta (spin), previous searches for
BBHs have filtered LIGO and Virgo data using only waveforms where both
component spins are zero. This leads to a loss of signal-to-noise ratio for
signals where this is not the case. Combining the best available template
placement techniques and waveform models, we construct a template bank of GW
signals from BBHs with component spins $\chi_{1,2}\in [-0.99, 0.99]$ aligned
with the orbital angular momentum, component masses $m_{1,2}\in [2,
48]\,\mathrm{M}_\odot$, and total mass $M_\mathrm{total} \leq
50\,\mathrm{M}_\odot$. Using effective-one-body waveforms with spin effects, we
show that less than $3\%$ of the maximum signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of these
signals is lost due to the discreetness of the bank, using the early advanced
LIGO noise curve. We use simulated advanced LIGO noise to compare the
sensitivity of this bank to a non-spinning bank covering the same parameter
space. In doing so, we consider the competing effects between improved SNR and
signal-based vetoes, and the increase in the rate of false alarms of the
aligned-spin bank due to covering a larger parameter space. We find that the
aligned-spin bank can be a factor of $1.3$ -- $5$ more sensitive than a
non-spinning bank to BBHs with dimensionless spins $> +0.6$ and component
masses $\gtrsim 20\,\mathrm{M}_\odot$, and even larger gains for systems with
equally high spins but smaller component masses.
