MBH Readings

Reading
Sesana et. al. Dec 2004

This article is a more refined version of a similar paper published a few months prior. It seeks to calculate the number of Massive Black Hole (MBH) inspiral and coalescence signals observed by LISA in a three year observing period.
Key Concepts to refine:

• 'Generic' gravitational wave signals. Bursts, periodic signals, characteristic strain...
• 1/f noise
• Sensitivity. Is it S/N=Sensitivity*Signal?
• What is it mean to "Add in quadrature"
  

Keywords (words with ad-hoc or implicit definitions, related concepts)

• Hierarchy
• MBH formation

The statistics on page 8 seem ad-hoc. They give a single event count and explore the sensitivity to various priors by computing one or two other numbers. It would seem to me that the important prediction wouldnt be the number of events observed in three years but rather the dependence of that number on assumptions. The treatment of this question does not satisfy me.

I need a better understanding of the gravity waves. Why is the spectrum and time evolution the way it is? What is a "burst" and why can we treat it as a single wavelength pulse.

Is the loose estimate that the frequency 'bin' Df is the same size as f typical? This seems like an awfully large bin.

All this aside, this is much better than the first version of this article (Sesana et al, ApJ August 2004)