language: en

[IOP PUBLISHING CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM GRAVITY]

[Class. Quantum Grav. 25 (2008) 114037 (8pp)]

doi:10.1088/0264-9381/25/11/114037

Report on the second Mock LISA data challenge

Stanislav Babak 1 , John G Baker 2 , Matthew J Benacquista 3 , Neil J Cornish 4 , Jeff Crowder 5 , Curt Cutler 5,6 , Shane L Larson 7 , Tyson B Littenberg 4 , Edward K Porter 1 , Michele Vallisneri 5,6 , Alberto Vecchio 8,9 (the Mock LISA data challenge task force), Gerard Auger 10 , Leor Barack 11 , Arkadiusz B?aut 12 , Ed Bloomer 13 , Duncan A Brown 6,14,15 , Nelson Christensen 16 , James Clark 13 , Stephen Fairhurst 6,15,17 , Jonathan R Gair 18 , Hubert Halloin 10 , Martin Hendry 13 , Arturo Jimenez 3 , Andrzej Królak 19 , Ilya Mandel 6,9 , Chris Messenger 13 , Renate Meyer 20 , Soumya Mohanty 3 , Rajesh Nayak 3 , Antoine Petiteau 10 , Matt Pitkin 13 , Eric Plagnol 10 , Reinhard Prix 1 , Emma L Robinson 8 , Christian Roever 20 , Pavlin Savov 6 , Alexander Stroeer 8,9 , Jennifer Toher 13 , John Veitch 8 , Jean-Yves Vinet 21 , Linqing Wen 1 , John T Whelan 1 and Graham Woan 13 (the Challenge-2 participants)
1 Max-Planck-Institut für Gravitationsphysik (Albert-Einstein-Institut),
Am Mühlenberg 1, D-14476 Golm bei Potsdam, Germany
2 Gravitational Astrophysics Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center,
8800 Greenbelt Rd., Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
3 Center for Gravitational Wave Astronomy, University of Texas at Brownsville,
Brownsville, TX 78520, USA
4 Department of Physics, Montana State University,
Bozeman, MT 59717, USA
5 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology,
Pasadena, CA 91109, USA
6 Theoretical Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology,
Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
7 Department of Physics, Weber State University,
2508 University Circle, Ogden, UT 84408, USA
8 School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham,
Edgbaston, Birmingham B152TT, UK
9 Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northwestern University,
Evanston, IL, USA
10 APC, UMR 7164, University Paris 7 Denis Diderot,
10, rue Alice Domon et Leonie Duquet, 75025 Paris Cedex 13, France
11 School of Mathematics, University of Southampton,
Southampton SO171BJ, UK
12 Institute of Theoretical Physics, University of Wroc?aw,
Wroc?aw, Poland
13 Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow,
Glasgow, UK
14 Department of Physics, Syracuse University,
Syracuse NY13244, USA
15 LIGO Laboratory, California Institute of Technology,
Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
16 Physics and Astronomy, Carleton College,
Northfield, MN, USA
17 School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University,
5, TheParade, Cardiff CF243YB, UK
18 Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge,
Cambridge CB30HA, UK
19 Institute of Mathematics, Polish Academy of Sciences,
Warsaw, Poland
20 Department of Statistics, The University of Auckland,
Auckland, New Zealand
21 ARTEMIS, Observatoire de la Cote d'Azur-C.N.R.S.,
06304 Nice, France
E-mail: Michele.Vallisneri@jpl.nasa.gov Received 11 November 2007 Published 15 May 2008

[Online at stacks.iop.org/CQG/25/114037]

Abstract The Mock LISA data challenges are a program to demonstrate LISA dataanalysis capabilities and to encourage their development. Each round of challenges consists of several data sets containing simulated instrument noise and gravitational waves from sources of undisclosed parameters. Participants are asked to analyze the data sets and report the maximum information about the source parameters. The challenges are being released in rounds of increasing complexity and realism: here we present the results of Challenge 2, issued in Jan 2007, which successfully demonstrated the recovery of signals from nonspinning supermassive-black-hole binaries with optimal SNRs between ?10 and 2000, from ?20 000 overlapping galactic white-dwarf binaries (among a realistically distributed population of 26 million), and from the extreme-massratio inspirals of compact objects into central galactic black holes with optimal SNRs ?100.

PACS numbers: 04.80.Nn, 95.55.Ym

(Some figures in this article are in colour only in the electronic version)

1. Introduction