## [0901.2437] The Samurai Project: verifying the consistency of black-hole-binary waveforms for gravitational-wave detection

Authors: Mark Hannam, Sascha Husa, John G. Baker, Michael Boyle, Bernd Bruegmann, Tony Chu, Nils Dorband, Frank Herrmann, Ian Hinder, Bernard J. Kelly, Lawrence E. Kidder, Pablo Laguna, Keith D. Matthews, James R. van Meter, Harald P. Pfeiffer, Denis Pollney, Christian Reisswig, Mark A. Scheel, Deirdre Shoemaker

Date: 16 Jan 2009

Abstract: We quantify the consistency of numerical-relativity black-hole-binary waveforms for use in gravitational-wave (GW) searches with current and planned ground-based detectors. We compare previously published results for the $(\ell=2,| m | =2)$ mode of the gravitational waves from an equal-mass nonspinning binary, calculated by five numerical codes. We focus on the 1000M (about six orbits, or 12 GW cycles) before the peak of the GW amplitude and the subsequent ringdown. We find that the phase and amplitude agree within each code's uncertainty estimates. The mismatch between the $(\ell=2,| m| =2)$ modes is better than $10ˆ{-3}$ for binary masses above $60 M_{\odot}$ with respect to the Enhanced LIGO detector noise curve, and for masses above $180 M_{\odot}$ with respect to Advanced LIGO, Virgo and Advanced Virgo. Between the waveforms with the best agreement, the mismatch is below $2 \times 10ˆ{-4}$. We find that the waveforms would be indistinguishable in all ground-based detectors (and for the masses we consider) if detected with a signal-to-noise ratio of less than $\approx25$.

#### Jan 19, 2009

0901.2437 (/preprints)
2009-01-19, 07:43