Optimal Calibration Accuracy for Gravitational Wave Detectors

Understand

Calibration errors in the response function of a gravitational wave detector degrade its ability to detect and then to measure the properties of any detected signals.

• This paper derives the needed levels of calibration accuracy for each of these data-analysis tasks.
• The levels derived here are optimal in the sense that lower accuracy would result in missed detections and/or a loss of measurement precision, while higher accuracy would be made irrelevant by the intrinsic noise level of the detector.
• Calibration errors affect the data-analysis process in much the same way as errors in theoretical waveform templates.