Gravitational waves from coalescing binaries: Estimation of parameters

We investigate the problem of estimation of parameters of a gravitational wave signal from a coalescing binary, at the output of a single interferometric detector. We present, a computationally viable statistical model of the distribution, of the maximum likelihood estimates (MLE), of the parameters. This model reproduces the essential features of the Monte Carlo simulations, thereby explaining the large root mean square errors in the estimates, obtained in numerical experiments. We also suggest a more pertinent criterion to assess the performance of the MLE, and find that the MLE performs reasonably. We have considered a Newtonian signal embedded in Gaussian noise, with a power spectrum typical of the LIGO/VIRGO type of detectors. The model we have used, however, is quite general, and robust, and will be relevant to many other parameter estimation problems. PACS numbers: 04.30.Db, 04.80.Nn, 95.85.Sz, 97.80.Af