Ben Farr edited summary.tex  over 8 years ago

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\section{Conclusions}\label{sec:conclusions}  In this study we investigated the effects of accounting for spin when estimating the parameters of BNS sources with aLIGO. We expect NSs to be only slowly spinning, and hence that their spins only have a small effect of the GW signature of a BNS merger. However, allowing for spins \textit{does} have a significant effect on parameter constraints. Strong degeneracies are present in the model; not only are the spins themselves poorly constrained, but these degeneracies result in weaker constraints on other parameters, particularly masses. Excluding spin from parameter estimation results in artificially narrow and potentially inaccurate posterior distributions.  Weaker constraints are the result of accounting for broad prior assumptions on NS spins. We tested various choices for conservative prior assumptions about NS spins and found them to have little effect on mass estimates. Only strong prior assumptions, such as say $\chi_{1,~2}\lesssim 0.05$ (consistent with the simulated population, and NSs observed in short-period BNS binaries to date) are likely to significantly affect mass constraints. However, such strict prior assumptions are hard to justify given the small number of observed systems and possible selection effects.