Mock LISA Data Challenge: Round 2 is underway!

With the first round of the Mock LISA Data Challenge complete, the MLDC team has now released the data set for round 2! Here's your chance to learn more about recent developments in this program to evaluate the readiness and spur the development of LISA data analysis tools and methods.

A representative power spectrum of a challenge-2 dataset.

The Mock LISA Data Challenge (MLDC) is a program sponsored by the LISA International Science Team to foster the development of LISA data-analysis tools and capabilities, and to demonstrate the technical readiness already achieved by the gravitational-wave community in distilling a rich science payoff from the LISA data output. The challenges involve the distribution of several datasets, encoded in a simple standard format, and containing combinations of realistic simulated LISA noise with the signals from one or more LISA gravitational-wave sources of parameters unknown to the challenge participants, who are asked to return the maximum amount of information about the GW sources, and to produce technical notes detailing their work.

The Challenge-1 datasets, including signals from isolated or mildly interfering sources covered by the LISA minimum requirements (compact Galactic binaries and supermassive black-hole binaries) were released in June 2006. Results were due at the beginning of December, and were presented shortly thereafter at Postdam's 11th Gravitational-Wave Data-Analysis Workshop. Slides for the presentations of the MLDC task force and of the challenge-1 participants can be seen on the GWDAW website; results are also summarized in the GWDAW proceeding authored by the task force. Ten collaboration submitted entries, covering all source classes, and adopting several different data-analysis methods. Several results were spot-on; others identified differences in conventions and other minor problems; all provided useful information to understand LISA data analysis and move on with the MLDC program.

Challenge-2 datasets, introducing the problem of global analysis in the LISA data (and including confusion noise from a 30-million-source Galactic model and signals from 4–6 massive black hole binaries and 5 extreme mass ratio inspirals) were posted at the end of January on the MLDC website. Results are due on June 15, in time to be presented and discussed presented at the Sydney Amaldi meeting. A second GWDAW proceeding provides more details about this challenge.

We encourage all interested parties to participate in the challenges. To learn more about them, please visit the official MLDC website. A variety of software tools (including the LISA simulators used to generate the datasets, and code to read them from various computer languages) are available at the LISAtools project, and the activities of the MLDC Taskforce can be tracked on their wiki. Prospective challenge participants are asked to subscribe to the MLDC challenge mailing list, and to register with one of the MLDC co-chairs, Michele Vallisneri and Alberto Vecchio. Please direct any other query, contribution, or feedback to them.