Precision Parameter Estimation, Strong Field Tests of GR, and Spin Inference for future detections

by Vaishak Prasad

Friday 3 Jul 2026, 14:00 → 16:00 Europe/Berlin

Abbenaum /1 - SR 102 (TPI, FSU Jena)

As the sensitivity of the LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA detector network improves, gravitational-wave observations are moving from detections to precision measurements. We can now observe compact-binary mergers at larger distances, probe earlier cosmic epochs, and study exceptionally loud
events in unprecedented detail. These observations enable sharper tests of general relativity, more informative measurements of compact-object populations, and increasingly stringent requirements on the waveform models that connect strong-field source dynamics to detector data. In this talk, I will address three connected aspects of this precision regime: accelerated time-domain analysis, consistency tests of general relativity, and binary-black-hole spin inference.
I will first present ‘tdanalysis‘, an accelerated time domain analysis pipeline [1], and discuss the various hardware, software, and algorithmic optimizations that enable exact Gaussian likelihood evaluations at O(N logN ) complexity. Then, I present the multi-segment consistency test of GR [2],
a generalization of the Inspiral-Merger-Ringdown consistency test [3]. Finally, I present evidence from recent research revisiting the spin-priors [4], that challenges the GWTC-4.0 result that the spin-magnitude posterior peaks lie at very small values χ ≃ 0.01–0.23 at 90% CI, for roughly 83% of observed black holes [4, 5].
Time permitting, I will conclude by discussing indications that binary-black-hole mergers may exhibit a thermodynamic character, as suggested by the maximum-entropy conjecture for black-hole mergers [6].