Detectability of lensed gravitational waves in matched-filtering searches
Gravitational lensing by compact, small-scale intervening masses causes frequency-dependent distortions to gravitational-wave events. The optimal signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is often used as a proxy for the detectability of exotic signals in gravitational-wave searches. In reality, the detectability of such signals in a matched-filtering search requires comprehensive consideration of match-filtered SNR, signal-consistency test value, and other factors. In this work, we investigate for the first time the detectability of lensed gravitational waves from compact binary coalescences with a match-filtering search pipeline, GstLAL. Contrary to expectations from the optimal SNR approximation approach, we show that the strength of a signal (i.e., higher optimal SNR) does not necessarily result in higher detectability. We also demonstrate that lensed gravitational waves with wave optic effects can suffer significantly, from 90% (unlensed) to $<1%$ (lensed) detection efficiency, due to downranking by the signal-consistency test values. These findings stress the need to extend current template banks to effectively search for lensed gravitational waves and to reassess current constraints on compact dark matter scenarios.
Authors
- Alvin K. Y. Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6728-6523)
- C. Chan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3377-4737)
- José María Ezquiaga (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7213-3211)
- E. G. Seo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8588-4794)
- Heather Fong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2722-6918)
Institutions
- California Institute of Technology (US)
- University of British Columbia (CA)
- Chinese University of Hong Kong (HK)
- The University of Tokyo (JP)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physical review. D/Physical review. D.
- Published
- 2025-04-07
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.111.084019
- Citations
- 16
- Primary Topic
- Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 18.48
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Villum Fonden
- Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics
- Croucher Foundation
- Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
- Danmarks Grundforskningsfond
- Københavns Universitet
- Canada Research Chairs
- Academia Sinica
- National Research Foundation of Korea
- Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
- Ministry of Science and ICT, South Korea
- Horizon 2020 Framework Programme
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- Science and Technology Facilities Council
- Australian Research Council
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
- Instituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare
- HORIZON EUROPE Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions