When travelling from their source to the observer, gravitational waves can get deflected by massive objects along their travel path. For a massive lens and a good source-lens alignment, the wave undergoes strong lensing, leading to several images with the same frequency evolution. These images are separated in time, magnified, and can undergo an overall phase shift. Searches for strongly lensed gravitational waves look for events with similar masses, spins, and sky location and linked through so-called lensing parameters. However, the agreement between these quantities can also happen by chance. To reduce the overlap between background and foreground, one can include lensing models. When doing realistic searches, one does not know which model is the correct one to be used. Using an incorrect model could lead to the non-detection of genuinely lensed events. In this work, we investigate how one can reduce the false alarm probability when searching for strongly lensed events. We focus on the impact of the addition of a model for the lens density profile and investigate the effect of potential errors in the modelling. We show that the risks of false alarm are high without the addition of a lens model. We also show that slight variations in the profile of the lens model are tolerable, but a model with an incorrect assumption about the underlying lens population causes significant errors in the identification process. We also suggest some strategies to improve confidence in the detection of strongly lensed gravitational waves.
Gravitational lensing describes the bending of the trajectories of light and gravitational waves due to the gravitational potential of a massive object. Strong lensing by galaxies can create multiple images with different overall amplifications, arrival times, and image types. If, furthermore, the gravitational wave encounters a star along its trajectory, microlensing will take place. Previously, it has been shown that the effects of microlenses on strongly-lensed type-I images could be negligible in practice, at least in the low magnification regime. In this work, we study the same effect on type-II strongly-lensed images by computing the microlensing amplification factor. As opposed to being magnified, type-II images are typically demagnified. Moreover, microlensing on top of type-II images induces larger mismatches with un-microlensed waveforms than type-I images. These results are broadly consistent with recent literature and serve to confirm the findings. In addition, we investigate the possibility of detecting and analysing microlensed signals through Bayesian parameter estimation with an isolated point mass lens template, which has been adopted in recent parameter estimation literature. In particular, we simulate gravitational waves microlensed by a microlens embedded in a galaxy potential near moderately magnified type-I and II macroimages, with variable lens masses, source parameters and macromagnifcations. Generally, an isolated point mass model could be used as an effective template to detect a type-II microlensed image but not for type-I images, demonstrating the necessity for more realistic microlensing search templates.
more » « less- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10467683
- Publisher / Repository:
- Oxford University Press
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Volume:
- 526
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 0035-8711
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: p. 2230-2240
- Size(s):
- ["p. 2230-2240"]
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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