Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2017) 132: 10
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/i2017-11283-5

Review

Obtaining gravitational waves from inspiral binary systems using LIGO data

¹ Tecnológico de Monterrey, Campus Guadalajara, Av. General Ramón Corona 2514, Col. Nuevo México, 45201 Zapopan, Jalisco, Mexico
² Departamento de Física, Centro Universitario de Ciencias Exactas e Ingenierías, Universidad de Guadalajara, Av. Revolución 1500, Col. Olímpica, 44430 Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico
³ Instituto de Física y Matemáticas, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, Edificio C-3, Ciudad Universitaria, 58040 Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico

^* e-mail: mauricio.antelis@itesm.mx

Received: 2 December 2016
Accepted: 5 December 2016
Published online: 12 January 2017

Abstract

The discovery of the astrophysical events GW150926 and GW151226 has experimentally confirmed the existence of gravitational waves (GW) and has demonstrated the existence of binary stellar-mass black hole systems. This finding marks the beginning of a new era that will reveal unexpected features of our universe. This work presents a basic insight to the fundamental theory of GW emitted by inspiral binary systems and describes the scientific and technological efforts developed to measure these waves using the interferometer-based detector called LIGO. Subsequently, the work presents a comprehensive data analysis methodology based on the matched filter algorithm, which aims to recovery GW signals emitted by inspiral binary systems of astrophysical sources. This algorithm was evaluated with freely available LIGO data containing injected GW waveforms. Results of the experiments performed to assess detection accuracy showed the recovery of 85% of the injected GW.