The Frequency Spectra of Gravitational Waveforms with Memory in Numerical Relativity

Gravitational wave memory effects have long been calculated using the Post-Newtonian approximation. Only recently has numerical relativity been able to produce waveforms that contain these effects. For an event detected with a large signal-to-noise ratio, the inclusion of memory in the waveform model can potentially affect the performance of parameter estimation. We examine the frequency spectra of numerical waveforms both with and without memory. We find interesting differences between their spectra in the inspiral part and in their low-frequency content. We also compare the results of Bilby parameter estimation using waveform models with and without memory.