Sampler-free gravitational wave inference using matrix multiplication
Parameter estimation (PE) for compact binary coalescence (CBC) events observed by gravitational wave (GW) laser interferometers is a core task in GW astrophysics. We present a method to compute the posterior distribution efficiently without relying on stochastic samplers. First, we show how to select sets of intrinsic and extrinsic parameters that efficiently cover the relevant phase space. We then show how to compute the likelihood for all combinations of these parameters using dot products. We describe how to assess and tune the integration accuracy, making the outcome predictable and adaptable to different applications. The low computational cost allows full PE in minutes on a single CPU, with the potential for further acceleration using multiple CPUs or GPUs. We implement this method in the dot-PE package, enabling sensitive searches using the full evidence integral for precessing CBCs and supporting large waveform banks ($\ensuremath{\sim}{10}^{5}--{10}^{6}$ waveforms), regardless of waveform generation cost.
Authors
- A. K. Mehta (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7351-6724)
- Digvijay Shivaji Wadekar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2544-7533)
- Tejaswi Venumadhav (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1661-2138)
- Javier Roulet (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3268-4796)
- Oryna Ivashtenko (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2805-9405)
- Jonathan Mushkin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-9057-9581)
- Matías Zaldarriaga
- Barak Zackay (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5162-9501)
Institutions
- Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (IN)
- California Institute of Technology (US)
- Johns Hopkins University (US)
- University of California, Santa Barbara (US)
- University of California System (US)
- Institute for Advanced Study (US)
- International Centre for Theoretical Sciences (IN)
- Weizmann Institute of Science (IL)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physical review. D/Physical review. D.
- Published
- 2025-11-12
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1103/vqj2-7qpz
- Primary Topic
- Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00