http://arxiv.org/abs/1806.09857
The standard model used in the detection of gravitational waves (GWs) presumes that the sources are not moving relative to the observer, but in reality they are. For light waves it is known that the relative motion changes the apparent brightness of the source, which is referred to as the “beaming effect”. Here we investigate such an effect for GW observations and calculate the “apparent amplitude” as a function of the relative velocity. We find that the observed amplitude deviates from the intrinsic one and that the difference can be larger than the calibration accuracy of LIGO even when the velocity is $(0.1-1)~\%$ the speed of light. Moreover, the relative strength of the two GW polarizations also changes. Neglecting these effects would lead to an incorrect estimation of the distance and orbital inclination of a GW source, or induce a spurious signal that appears to be incompatible with general relativity. The magnitude of these effects is $\textit{not}$ a monotonic function of the relative velocity, which differs from the beaming effect for light and reveals a remarkable difference between gravitational and electromagnetic radiation.
A. Torres-Orjuela, X. Chen, Z. Cao, et. al.
Wed, 27 Jun 18
23/54
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