Validating Prior-informed Fisher-matrix Analyses against GWTC Data

Understand

Fisher-matrix methods are widely used to predict how accurately parameters can be estimated.

• Being computationally efficient, this approach is prompted by the large number of signals simulated in forecast studies for future gravitational-wave (GW) detectors, for which adequate analysis tools and computational resources are still unavailable to the scientific community.
• However, approximating the full likelihood function with a Gaussian may lead to inaccuracies, which we investigate in this work.
• To assess the accuracy of the Fisher approximation, we compare the results of the Fisher code GWFish against real data from the Gravitational Wave Transient Catalogs (GWTCs) provided by the Virgo/LIGO Bayesian analyses.