vallis.org::research

The MLDCs

The Mock LISA Data Challenges (MLDCs) were a program to demonstrate LISA data-analysis capabilities and to encourage their development. Each round of challenges consisted of several data sets containing simulated instrument noise and signals from gravitational-wave sources of undisclosed parameters. Participants were asked to analyze the data sets and report the maximum information about source parameters.

The challenges were released in rounds of increasing complexity and realism, and they demonstrated the recovery of model signals from supermassive black-hole binaries of SNRs between 10 and 200, from ~ 20,000 overlapping Galactic white-dwarf binaries (among a realistically distributed population of 26 million), and from the extreme--mass-ratio inspirals of compact objects into central galactic black holes with SNRs ~ 100.

I was the co-chair of the MLDC taskforce that formulated the challenge problems, produced the data sets, administered the challenge rounds, collected and evaluated results. In collaboration with Curt Cutler and others, I also participated in the challenges as a contestant, concentrating especially on the searches for supermassive--black-hole binary inspirals.

MLDC official website: includes all challenge data sets and solutions.
MLDC wiki: includes the working documents of the taskforce, and the minutes of our telecons.
The lisatools project at Google Code: includes all the open-source software that we developed to generate the challenge data sets and to read and write lisaXML, the data format that I designed for the MLDCs (see the Computing in Science and Engineering publication below).

MLDC taskforce publications

Round 1

The Mock LISA Data Challenges: An overview
MLDC taskforce*
Laser Interferometer Space Antenna: 6th International LISA Symposium (Greenbelt, MD, 19-23 Jun 2006), S. M. Merkowitz and J. C. Livas, eds. (AIP, Melville, NY, 2006), p. 619 [+] [-]
arXiv: gr-qc/0609105 – abs, pdf
ADS: 2006AIPC..873..619A – record, bibtex
DOI: 10.1063/1.2405108
full authorlist: K. A. Arnaud, S. Babak, J. G. Baker, M. J. Benacquista, N. J. Cornish, C. Cutler, S. L. Larson, B. S. Sathyaprakash, M. Vallisneri, A. Vecchio, and J.-Y. Vinet (the LISA Mock Data Challenge Task Force)
A how-to for the Mock LISA Data Challenges
MLDC taskforce*
Laser Interferometer Space Antenna: 6th International LISA Symposium (Greenbelt, MD, 19-23 Jun 2006), S. M. Merkowitz and J. C. Livas, eds. (AIP, Melville, NY, 2006), p. 625 [+] [-]
arXiv: gr-qc/0609106 – abs, pdf
ADS: 2006AIPC..873..625. – record, bibtex
DOI: 10.1063/1.2405109
full authorlist: K. A. Arnaud, S. Babak, J. G. Baker, M. J. Benacquista, N. J. Cornish, C. Cutler, S. L. Larson, B. S. Sathyaprakash, M. Vallisneri, A. Vecchio, and J.-Y. Vinet (the LISA Mock Data Challenge Task Force)
Report on the first round of the Mock LISA Data Challenges
MLDC taskforce and MLDC1 participants*
Class. Quant. Grav. 24, S529 (2007) [+] [-]
arXiv: gr-qc/0701139 – abs, pdf
ADS: 2007CQGra..24S.529A – record, bibtex
DOI: 10.1088/0264-9381/24/19/S16
full authorlist: K. A. Arnaud, G. Auger, S. Babak, J. G. Baker, M. J. Benacquista, E. Bloomer, D. A. Brown, J. B. Camp, J. K. Cannizzo, N. Christensen, J. Clark, N. J. Cornish, J. Crowder, C. Cutler, L. S. Finn, H. Halloin, K. Hayama, M. Hendry, O. Jeannin, A. Królak, S. L. Larson, I. Mandel, C. Messenger, R. Meyer, S. Mohanty, R. Nayak, K. Numata, A. Petiteau, M. Pitkin, E. Plagnol, E. K. Porter, R. Prix, C. Roever, B. S. Sathyaprakash, A. Stroeer, R. Thirumalainambi, D. E. Thompson, J. Toher, R. Umstaetter, M. Vallisneri, A. Vecchio, J. Veitch, J.-Y. Vinet, J. T. Whelan, and G. Woan (the LISA Mock Data Challenge Task Force and Challenge 1 participants)

Round 2

An overview of the second round of the Mock LISA Data Challenges
MLDC taskforce*
Class. Quant. Grav. 24, S551 (2007) [+] [-]
arXiv: gr-qc/0701170 – abs, pdf
ADS: 2007CQGra..24S.551A – record, bibtex
DOI: 10.1088/0264-9381/24/19/S18
full authorlist: K. A. Arnaud, S. Babak, J. G. Baker, M. J. Benacquista, N. J. Cornish, C. Cutler, L. S. Finn, S. L. Larson, T. Littenberg, E. K. Porter, B. S. Sathyaprakash, M. Vallisneri, A. Vecchio, and J.-Y. Vinet (the LISA Mock Data Challenge Task Force)
Report on the second Mock LISA Data Challenge
MLDC taskforce and MLDC2 participants*
Class. Quant. Gravity 25, 114037 (2008) [+] [-]
arXiv: 0711.2667 – abs, pdf
ADS: 2008CQGra..25k4037B – record, bibtex
DOI: 10.1088/0264-9381/25/11/114037
full authorlist: S. Babak, J. G. Baker, M. J. Benacquista, N. J. Cornish, J. Crowder, C. Cutler, S. L. Larson, T. B. Littenberg, E. K. Porter, M. Vallisneri, A. Vecchio (the Mock LISA Data Challenge task force), G. Auger, L. Barack, A. Błaut, E. Bloomer, D. A. Brown, N. Christensen, J. Clark, S. Fairhurst, J. R. Gair, H. Halloin, M. Hendry, A. Jimenez, A. Królak, I. Mandel, C. Messenger, R. Meyer, S. Mohanty, R. Nayak, A. Petiteau, M. Pitkin, E. Plagnol, R. Prix, E. L. Robinson, C. Roever, P. Savov, A. Stroeer, J. Toher, J. Veitch, J.-Y. Vinet, L. Wen, J. T. Whelan, G. Woan (the Challenge 2 participants)

Round 1B, 3, 4

The Mock LISA Data Challenges: from Challenge 1B to Challenge 3
MLDC taskforce and MLDC1B participants*
Class. Quant. Grav. 25, 184026 (2008) [+] [-]
arXiv: 0806.2110 – abs, pdf
ADS: 2008CQGra..25r4026B – record, bibtex
DOI: 10.1088/0264-9381/25/18/184026
full authorlist: Stanislav Babak, John G. Baker, Matthew J. Benacquista, Neil J. Cornish, Jeff Crowder, Shane L. Larson, Eric Plagnol, Edward K. Porter, Michele Vallisneri, Alberto Vecchio (the Mock LISA Data Challenge Task Force), Keith Arnaud, Leor Barack, Arkadiusz Błaut, Curt Cutler, Stephen Fairhurst, Jonathan Gair, Xuefei Gong, Ian Harry, Deepak Khurana, Andrzej Królak, Ilya Mandel, Reinhard Prix, B. S. Sathyaprakash, Pavlin Savov, Yu Shang, Miquel Trias, John Veitch, Yan Wang, Linqing Wen, John T. Whelan (the Challenge 1B participants)
The Mock LISA Data Challenges: from Challenge 3 to Challenge 4
MLDC taskforce and MLDC3 participants*
Class. Quant. Grav. 27, 084009 (2010) [+] [-]
arXiv: 0912.0548 – abs, pdf
ADS: 2010CQGra..27h4009B – record, bibtex
DOI: 10.1088/0264-9381/27/8/084009
full authorlist: Stanislav Babak, John G. Baker, Matthew J. Benacquista, Neil J. Cornish, Shane L. Larson, Ilya Mandel, Antoine Petiteau, Edward K. Porter, Emma L. Robinson, Michele Vallisneri, Alberto Vecchio (the Mock LISA Data Challenge Task Force), Matt Adams, Keith A. Arnaud, Arkadiusz Błaut, Michael Bridges, Michael Cohen, Curt Cutler, Farhan Feroz, Jonathan R. Gair, Philip Graff, Mike Hobson, Joey Shapiro Key, Andrzej Królak, Anthony Lasenby, Reinhard Prix, Yu Shang, Miquel Trias, John Veitch, John T. Whelan (the MLDC 3 participants)

Publications from my group

About analysis methods and the lisatools infrastructure

A LISA Data-Analysis Primer
M. Vallisneri
Class. Quant. Grav. 26, 094024 (2009) [+] [-]
arXiv: 0812.0751 – abs, pdf
ADS: 2009CQGra..26i4024V – record, bibtex
DOI: 10.1088/0264-9381/26/9/094024
Python and XML for agile scientific computing: the Mock LISA Data Challenges
M. Vallisneri and S. Babak
Computing in Science and Engineering 10, 80 (2008) [+] [-]
links: PDF
DOI: 10.1109/MCSE.2008.20
bibtex: @ARTICLE{10.1109/MCSE.2008.20, author = {{Vallisneri}, M. and {Babak}, S.}, title = "{Python and XML for agile scientific computing: the Mock LISA Data Challenges}", journal = {Computing in Science and Engineering}, year = 2008, volume = 10, number = 1, pages = {80-87}}

MLDC entries

A three-stage search for supermassive black-hole binaries in LISA data
D. A. Brown, J. Crowder, C. Cutler, I. Mandel, and M. Vallisneri*
Class. Quant. Grav. 24, S595 (2007) [+] [-]
arXiv: 0704.2447 – abs, pdf
ADS: 2007CQGra..24S.595B – record, bibtex
DOI: 10.1088/0264-9381/24/19/S22
Searches for Cosmic-String Gravitational-Wave Bursts in Mock LISA Data
M. I. Cohen, C. Cutler, and M. Vallisneri
Class. Quant. Grav. 27, 185012 (2010) [+] [-]
links: high-res PDF
arXiv: 1002.4153 – abs, pdf
ADS: 2010CQGra..27r5012C – record, bibtex
DOI: 10.1088/0264-9381/27/18/185012

Michele's research

The Mock LISA Data Challenges (2006–2011)