LIGO Seminar

In preparation for the advanced LIGO detectors, I have worked on both detection and post-detection efforts involving compact binary coalescences (CBCs). In this talk, I will focus on two aspects of my Ph.D. research: a CBC search for intermediate-mass black-hole binaries (IMBHBs) and new methods for directly measuring the neutron-star (NS) equation of state (EOS).

As this is the first time a matched filter search has been developed to search for IMBHBs, I will discuss what was learned in a mock data challenge where signals with total masses up to a few hundred solar masses were injected into recolored S6 data.

I will also present results for a new method of directly measuring the NS EOS by estimating the parameters of a 4-parameter piecewise polytrope that matches theoretical EOS models to a few percent.

We plan to broadcast this talk using SeeVogh.