Implementation to identify the properties of multiple populations of gravitational wave sources

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Authors: Meesum Qazalbash, Muhammad Zeeshan, Richard O'Shaughnessy
Cited by: 1
References: 104

Abstract

The rapidly increasing sensitivity of gravitational wave detectors is enabling the detection of a growing number of compact binary mergers. These events are crucial for understanding the population properties of compact binaries. However, many previous studies rely on computationally expensive inference frameworks, limiting their scalability. In this work, we present GWKokab, a JAX-based framework that enables modular model building with independent rate for each subpopulation such as BBH, BNS, and NSBH binaries. It provides accelerated inference using the normalizing flow based sampler called flowMC and is also compatible with NumPyro samplers. To validate our framework, we generated two synthetic populations, one comprising spinning eccentric binaries and the other circular binaries using a multi-source model. We then recovered their injected parameters at significantly reduced computational cost and demonstrated that eccentricity distribution can be recovered even in spinning eccentric populations. We also reproduced results from two prior studies: one on non-spinning eccentric populations, and another on the BBH mass distribution using the third Gravitational Wave Transient Catalog (GWTC-4). We anticipate that GWKokab will not only reduce computational costs but also enable more detailed subpopulation analyses such as their mass, spin, eccentricity, and redshift distributions in gravitational wave events, offering deeper insights into compact binary formation and evolution.

Fields of Study & Subjects

Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research Cosmology and Gravitation Theories Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae

Publication details

Journal / source
Physical review. D/Physical review. D.
Publisher
American Physical Society (APS)
Volume
113
Issue
10
Publication date
18 March 2026
Language
EN