May 5 – 8, 2026
CERN
Europe/Zurich timezone

Accurate and efficient simulation-based inference for massive black-hole binaries with LISA

May 6, 2026, 3:10 PM
1h 10m
40/S2-A01 - Salle Anderson (CERN)

40/S2-A01 - Salle Anderson

CERN

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Poster AI for Data Analysis Posters

Speaker

Alice Spadaro (L2IT)

Description

We develop an accurate simulation-based inference framework for high-mass ($\gtrsim\!10^7 \rm{M_\odot}$) black-hole binaries observable by LISA. The method is implemented within the DINGO gravitational-wave parameter-estimation code, extending its application from ground-based detectors to the LISA band. We train a normalizing-flow model using aligned-spin higher-mode waveform models and a low-frequency approximation of the detector response. After sampling, we importance-sample to the true posterior. We validate performance on simulated signals spanning the signal-to-noise regimes relevant for LISA observations and benchmark our new DINGO implementation against standard methods. We report robust agreement in the inferred posterior distributions up to signal-to-noise ratios of ∼ 500. At higher signal-to-noise ratios of ∼ 1000, we observe a reduction in sampling efficiency, while still yielding unbiased and tightly localized posteriors that can be used as a starting point for follow-up with traditional methods. The trained flow can generate 20 thousand posterior samples in less than a minute, establishing DINGO as a promising neural inference framework for rapid full-parameter estimation of massive black-hole binaries in the LISA band. The likelihood-free nature of this approach allows for straightforward generalizations, including a time-dependent detector response, non-stationary noise artifacts such as gaps and glitches, and low-latency parameter estimations.

Author

Alice Spadaro (L2IT)

Co-authors

Davide Gerosa (University of Milano-Bicocca) Jonathan Gair Michael Purrer Natalia Korsakova (Universite Cote d’Azur) Nihar Gupte (AEI) Riccardo Buscicchio Rodrigo Tenorio Samuel Clyne (University of Rhode Island) Stephen Green (University of Nottingham)

Presentation materials