APPLICATION OF WAVELET ANALYSIS TO ESTIMATION OF PARAMETERS OF THE GRAVITATIONAL-WAVE SIGNAL FROM A COALESCING BINARY

Application of wavelet analysis to the estimation of parameters of the broad-band gravitational-wave signal emitted by a binary system is in vestigated. A method of instantaneous frequency extraction first propo sed in this context by Innocent and Vinet is used. The gravitational-w ave signal from a binary is investigated from the point of view of sig nal analysis theory and it is shown that such a signal is characterize d by a large time-bandwidth product. This property enables the extract ion of frequency modulation from the wavelet transform of the signal. The wavelet transform of the chirp signal from a binary is calculated analytically. Numerical simulations with the noisy chirp signal are pe rformed. The gravitational-wave signal from a binary is taken in the q uadrupole approximation and it is buried in noise corresponding to thr ee different values of the signal-to-noise ratio and the wavelet metho d to extract the frequency modulation of the signal is applied. Then, from the frequency modulation, the chirp mass parameter of the binary is estimated. It is found that the chirp mass can be estimated to a go od accuracy, typically of the order of (20/d(0))% where do is the opti mal signal-to-noise ratio. It is also shown that the post-Newtonian ef fects in the gravitational wave signal from a binary can be discrimina ted to a satisfactory accuracy.