Detectability and parameter estimation of stellar origin black hole binaries with next generation gravitational wave detectors

Abstract

Abstract We consider stellar-origin black hole binaries, which are among the main astrophysical sources for next generation gravitational wave (GW) detectors such as the Einstein Telescope (ET) and Cosmic Explorer (CE). Using population models calibrated with the most recent LIGO/Virgo results from O3b run, we show that ET and CE will be capable of detecting tens of thousands of such sources (and virtually all of those present in our past light cone up to $$z\lesssim 0.7$$ z ≲ 0.7 for ET and $$z\lesssim 1$$ z ≲ 1 for CE) with a signal-to-noise ratio up to several hundreds, irrespective of the detector design. When it comes to parameter estimation, we use a Fisher-matrix analysis to assess the impact of the design on the estimation of the intrinsic and extrinsic parameters. We find that the CE detector, consisting of two distinct $$L-$$ L - shape interferometers, has better sky localization performance compared to ET in its triangular configuration. We also find that the network is typically capable of measuring the chirp mass, symmetric mass ratio and spins of the binary at order of $$10^{-5}$$ 10 - 5 , $$10^{-4}$$ 10 - 4 and $$10^{-4}$$ 10 - 4 fractional error respectively. While the fractional errors for the extrinsic parameters are of order $$10^{-2}$$ 10 - 2 for the sky localization, luminosity distance and inclination.