您选择的条件: John Veitch
  • Accumulating errors in tests of general relativity with gravitational waves: overlapping signals and inaccurate waveforms

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: Observations of gravitational waves (GWs) from compact binary coalescences provide powerful tests of general relativity (GR), but systematic errors in data analysis could lead to incorrect scientific conclusions. This issue is especially serious in the third-generation GW detectors in which the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is high and the number of detections is large. In this work, we investigate the impacts of overlapping signals and inaccurate waveform models on tests of GR. We simulate mock catalogs for Einstein Telescope and Cosmic Explorer and perform parametric tests of GR using waveform models with different levels of inaccuracy. We find the systematic error in non-GR parameter estimates could accumulate toward a false deviation from GR when combining results from multiple events, although a bayesian model selection analysis may not favour a deviation. Waveform inaccuracies contribute most to the systematic errors, but multiple overlapping signals could magnify the effects of systematics due to the incorrect removal of signals. We also point out that testing GR using selected ''golden binaries'' with high SNR is even more vulnerable to false deviations from GR. The problem of error accumulation is universal; we emphasize that it must be addressed to fully exploit the data from third-generation GW detectors, and that further investigations, particularly in waveform accuracy, will be essential.

  • A quantum algorithm for gravitational wave matched filtering

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: Quantum computational devices, currently under development, have the potential to accelerate data analysis techniques beyond the ability of any classical algorithm. We propose the application of a quantum algorithm for the detection of unknown signals in noisy data. We apply Grover's algorithm to matched-filtering, a signal processing technique that compares data to a number of candidate signal templates. In comparison to the classical method, this provides a speed-up proportional to the square-root of the number of templates, which would make possible otherwise intractable searches. We demonstrate both a proof-of-principle quantum circuit implementation, and a simulation of the algorithm's application to the detection of the first gravitational wave signal GW150914. We discuss the time complexity and space requirements of our algorithm as well as its implications for the currently computationally-limited searches for continuous gravitational waves.