Analysing GW150914

For a brief overview of the analysis and results on a simulated signal, see Overview.

Below we analyse the first observed gravitational-wave signal, GW150914 (Phys .Rev.Lett. 116 (2016) 6,061102, Phys.Rev.Lett. 116 (2016) 24,241102), using the simple_pe_pipe executable. The following config file can be used:

[pesummary]
trigger_time=GW150914
channels={H1:GWOSC, L1:GWOSC}
outdir=outdir
accounting_group=UNKNOWN
accounting_group_user=albert.einstein
f_low=20
f_high=2048
#trigger_parameters={mass_1: 36.8, mass_2: 32.0, spin_1z: -0.62, spin_2z: 0.47, chi_p: 0.1, time: 1126259462.41}
trigger_parameters=trigger_parameters.json
approximant=IMRPhenomXPHM
asd={H1:GW150914_H1_asd.txt,L1:GW150914_L1_asd.txt}
generate_corner=True

and this can be launched with:

simple_pe_pipe config.ini

Here, we specify the time of the event based upon the event identifier in the GWOSC database. The trigger_parameters file contains the approximate parameters of the event, which are used to seed the optimization routine. The asd dictionary contains pointers to the instrumental sensitivity curves.

Note

The auxiliary data can be downloaded from here.

Below is a corner plot showing the obtained posterior distribution when using the IMRPhenomXPHM waveform model (Phys.Rev.D 103 (2021) 10, 104056):

and below is a corner plot showing the obtained posterior distribution when using the IMRPhenomTPHM waveform model (Phys.Rev.D 105 (2022) 8, 084040):

Both of these analyses were performed as part of simple-pe’s continuous integration and are therefore using the latest version of the code.

Note

This research has made use of data or software obtained from the Gravitational Wave Open Science Center (gwosc.org), a service of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, the Virgo Collaboration, and KAGRA. This material is based upon work supported by NSF’s LIGO Laboratory which is a major facility fully funded by the National Science Foundation, as well as the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) of the United Kingdom, the Max-Planck-Society (MPS), and the State of Niedersachsen/Germany for support of the construction of Advanced LIGO and construction and operation of the GEO600 detector. Additional support for Advanced LIGO was provided by the Australian Research Council. Virgo is funded, through the European Gravitational Observatory (EGO), by the French Centre National de Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), the Italian Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) and the Dutch Nikhef, with contributions by institutions from Belgium, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Japan, Monaco, Poland, Portugal, Spain. KAGRA is supported by Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) in Japan; National Research Foundation (NRF) and Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) in Korea; Academia Sinica (AS) and National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) in Taiwan.