# Gravitational-wave astronomy with a physical calibration model

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LIGO-P2000294-v6
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P - Publications
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Abstract:
We carry out astrophysical inference for compact binary merger events in LIGO-Virgo's first gravitational-wave transient catalog (GWTC-1) using a physically motivated calibration model.
We demonstrate that importance sampling can be used to reduce the cost of what would otherwise be a computationally challenging analysis.
We show that including the physical estimate for the calibration error distribution has negligible impact on the inference of parameters for the events in GWTC-1.
Studying a simulated signal with matched filter signal-to-noise ratio $\text{SNR}=200$, we project that a calibration error estimate typical of GWTC-1 is likely to be negligible for the current generation of gravitational-wave detectors.
We argue that other sources of systematic error---from waveforms, prior distributions, and noise modelling---are likely to be more important.
Finally, using the events in GWTC-1 as standard sirens, we infer an astrophysically-informed improvement on the estimate of the calibration error in the LIGO interferometers.

Payne, Ethan, et al. "Gravitational-wave astronomy with a physical calibration model." Physical Review D 102.12 (2020): 122004.

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