New Clifford Will paper (LISA, BHs)

[marcus]

in case anyone is interested

http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0512160
On gravitational-wave spectroscopy of massive black holes with the space interferometer LISA

Authors: Emanuele Berti, Vitor Cardoso, Clifford M. Will
Comments: 44 pages, 21 figures, 10 tables
"Newly formed black holes are expected to emit characteristic radiation in the form of quasi-normal modes, called ringdown waves, with discrete frequencies. LISA should be able to detect the ringdown waves emitted by oscillating supermassive black holes throughout the observable Universe. We develop a multi-mode formalism, applicable to any interferometric detectors, for detecting ringdown signals, for estimating black hole parameters from those signals, and for testing the no-hair theorem of general relativity. Focusing on LISA, we use current models of its sensitivity to compute the expected signal-to-noise ratio for ringdown events, the relative parameter estimation accuracy, and the resolvability of different modes. We also discuss the extent to which uncertainties on physical parameters, such as the black hole spin and the energy emitted in each mode, will affect our ability to do black hole spectroscopy."

 

[Evan Fox]

I am very interested in this paper by Berti, Cardoso, and Will. It sounds like LISA could potentially be used to detect ringdown waves emitted by newly formed black holes and that the authors develop a multi-mode formalism to do so. It would be interesting to know what kind of parameter estimation accuracy and resolution can be expected with LISA and how uncertainties on physical parameters might affect this.