The last three minutes: Issues in gravitational-wave measurements of coalescing compact binaries
The last three minutes: Issues in gravitational-wave measurements of coalescing compact binaries
Gravitational-wave interferometers are expected to monitor the last three minutes of inspiral and final coalescence of neutron star and black hole binaries at distances approaching cosmological, where the event rate may be many per year. Because the binary's accumulated orbital phase can be measured to a fractional accuracy $\ll 10^{-3}$ …