Characterizing High Mass Binary Black Hole Signals with RIFT: Applications of Cutting Edge Parameter Estimation Techniques

The coalescences of exceptionally massive binaries such as GW190521 and GW170502 are among the most interesting events observable by ground based gravitational wave observatories in the LVK network. In particular, it is known that higher order modes and spin precession are more likely to affect parameter estimation for these systems, and that they are among the best test cases for numerical relativity and numerical relativity derived surrogate models. RIFT (Rapid parameter Inference on gravitational wave sources via iterative Fitting) is a parameter estimation algorithm which allows rapid exploration of the parameter space and computation of likelihoods for competing models, making it well suited to this application. I will discuss the use of these techniques with this exciting class of events, including their application to real data for the events mentioned above, as well as investigations into the systematics of parameter estimation on these systems.