Bayesian inference for compact binary coalescences with BILBY : Validation and application to the first LIGO-Virgo gravitational-wave transient catalogue

Romero-Shaw, I. M. and Talbot, C. and Biscoveanu, S. and D'Emilio, V. and Ashton, G. and Berry, C. P. L. and Coughlin, S. and Galaudage, S. and Hoy, C. and Hübner, M. and Phukon, K. S. and Pitkin, M. and Rizzo, M. and Sarin, N. and Smith, R. and Stevenson, S. and Vajpeyi, A. and Aréne, M. and Athar, K. and Banagiri, S. and Bose, N. and Carney, M. and Chatziioannou, K. and Clark, J. A. and Colleoni, M. and Cotesta, R. and Edelman, B. and Estellés, H. and Garcia-Quirós, C. and Ghosh, Abhirup and Green, R. and Haster, C. -J. and Husa, S. and Keitel, D. and Kim, A. X. and Hernandez-Vivanco, F. and Magaña Hernandez, I. and Karathanasis, C. and Lasky, P. D. and De Lillo, N. and Lower, M. E. and Macleod, D. and Mateu-Lucena, M. and Miller, A. and Millhouse, M. and Morisaki, S. and Oh, S. H. and Ossokine, S. and Payne, E. and Powell, J. and Pratten, G. and Pürrer, M. and Ramos-Buades, A. and Raymond, V. and Thrane, E. and Veitch, J. and Williams, D. and Williams, M. J. and Xiao, L. (2020) Bayesian inference for compact binary coalescences with BILBY : Validation and application to the first LIGO-Virgo gravitational-wave transient catalogue. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 499 (3). 3295–3319. ISSN 0035-8711

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Abstract

Gravitational waves provide a unique tool for observational astronomy. While the first LIGO–Virgo catalogue of gravitational-wave transients (GWTC-1) contains eleven signals from black hole and neutron star binaries, the number of observations is increasing rapidly as detector sensitivity improves. To extract information from the observed signals, it is imperative to have fast, flexible, and scalable inference techniques. In a previous paper, we introduced BILBY: a modular and user-friendly Bayesian inference library adapted to address the needs of gravitational-wave inference. In this work, we demonstrate that BILBY produces reliable results for simulated gravitational-wave signals from compact binary mergers, and verify that it accurately reproduces results reported for the eleven GWTC-1 signals. Additionally, we provide configuration and output files for all analyses to allow for easy reproduction, modification, and future use. This work establishes that BILBY is primed and ready to analyse the rapidly growing population of compact binary coalescence gravitational-wave signals.