Analyzing False Alarm Rates in Gravitational Wave Lensing Detection

This research investigates the false alarm rates (FAR) associated with detecting gravitational wave (GW) lensing from astrophysical coincidences. GW lensing, a consequence of general relativity, can produce multiple GW events with overlapping sky localization errors. However, distinguishing genuine lensing events from unlensed events that appear as lensed due to astrophysical uncertainties is challenging. The study employs the model-independent technique GLANCE on a simulated population of merging binary black holes (BBHs) to explore the impact of unlensed astrophysical GW sources on false lensing detections. The findings indicate that approximately 0.01% of event pairs can be falsely classified as lensed with a lensing threshold signal-to-noise ratio of 1.5, appearing at a time delay between the pair of events of ~1000 days or more. The authors present the FAR distribution for various parameters, including GW source masses, delay time, and lensing magnification parameter. They suggest that GLANCE can confidently detect lensed GW pairs with the current LIGO detector sensitivity. Furthermore, they anticipate that this technique will be valuable in understanding the lensing FAR for next-generation GW detectors, which are expected to observe a greater number of GW sources. The implications of this research are significant for the field of GW astronomy, providing crucial insights into the challenges of detecting GW lensing and the importance of accounting for astrophysical uncertainties. Further research is needed to refine these techniques and apply them to real-world data from GW detectors.

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