1998/09/15 by P. Jaranowski, Piotr Jaranowski, A. Królak +1 · 3 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Geophysics and Sensor Technology #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Seismic Waves and Analysis #gr-qc
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.59.063003
published as Phys.Rev. D59 (1999) 063003 · LaTeX, 34 pages, 15 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. D
arxiv created 1998/09/15 · openalex publication_date 1999/02/12 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We examine the accuracy of estimation of parameters of the gravitational-wave signals from spinning neutron stars that can be achieved from observations by Earth-based laser interferometers. We consider a model of the signal consisting of two narrow-band components and including both phase and amplitude modulation. We calculate approximate values of the rms errors of the parameter estimators using the Fisher information matrix. We carry out extensive Monte Carlo simulations and obtain cumulative distribution functions of rms errors of astrophysically interesting parameters: the amplitude of the signal, wobble angle, position of the source in the sky, frequency, and spin-down coefficients. We consider both all-sky searches and directed searches. We also examine the possibility of the determination of neutron star proper motion. We perform simulations for all laser-interferometric detectors that are currently under construction and for several possible lengths of the observation time and sizes of the parameter space. We find that observations of continuous gravitational-wave signals from neutron stars by laser-interferometric detectors will provide very accurate information about their astrophysical properties. We derive several simplified models of the signal that can be used in the theoretical investigations of the data analysis schemes independently of the physical mechanisms generating the gravitational-wave signal.