Estimating parameters of binary black holes from gravitational-wave observations of their inspiral, merger, and ringdown

We characterize the expected statistical errors with which the parameters of black hole binaries can be measured from gravitational-wave (GW) observations of their inspiral, merger, and ringdown by a network of second-generation ground-based GW observatories. We simulate a population of black hole binaries with uniform distribution of component masses in the interval (3, 80) M_, distributed uniformly in comoving volume, with isotropic orientations. From signals producing signal-to-noise ratio 5 in at least two detectors, we estimate the posterior distributions of the binary parameters using the Bayesian parameter estimation code LALInference. The GW signals will be redshifted due to the cosmological expansion, and we measure only the ``redshifted'' masses. By assuming a cosmology, it is possible to estimate the gravitational masses by inferring the redshift from the measured posterior of the luminosity distance. We find that the measurement of the gravitational masses will be, in general, dominated by the error in measuring the luminosity distance. In spite of this, the component masses of more than 50% of the population can be measured with accuracy better than 25% using the Advanced LIGO-Virgo network. Additionally, the mass of the final black hole can be measured with median accuracy 18%. Spin of the final black hole can be measured with median accuracy 5% (17%) for binaries with nonspinning (aligned-spin) black holes. Additional detectors in Japan and India significantly improve the accuracy of sky localization, and moderately improve the estimation of luminosity distance, and hence, that of all mass parameters. We discuss the implication of these results on the observational evidence of intermediate-mass black holes and the estimation of cosmological parameters using GW observations.