Binary black hole detection rates in inspiral gravitational wave searches

Abstract

The signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) for quasi-circular binary black hole inspirals computed from restricted post-Newtonian waveforms are compared with those attained by more complete post-Newtonian signals, which are superpositions of amplitude-corrected harmonics of the orbital phase. It is shown that if one were to use the best available amplitude-corrected waveforms for detection templates, one should expect SNRs in actual searches to be significantly lower than those suggested by simulations based purely on restricted waveforms.