Astrophysical calibration of gravitational-wave detectors

Understand

We investigate a method to assess the validity of gravitational-wave detector calibration through the use of gamma-ray bursts as standard sirens.

• Such signals, as measured via gravitational-wave observations, provide an estimated luminosity distance that is subject to uncertainties in the calibration of the data.
• If a host galaxy is identified for a given source then its redshift can be combined with current knowledge of the cosmological parameters yielding the true luminosity distance.
• This will then allow a direct comparison with the estimated value and can validate the accuracy of the original calibration.