Comparing Agreement Between Waveform Models for Binary Black Hole Observations

In this study, we compare gravitational waveform models used to analyze binary black hole mergers observed by the LIGO-Virgo-Kagra gravitational wave observatory network. We compare leading models from the IMRPhenom and SEOBNR families in the posterior parameter space of a diverse set of observations from the GWTC-2.1, GWTC-3, and GWTC-4 catalogs. For each gravitational wave event and waveform comparison, we compute the mismatch, amplitude difference, and the phase difference between the generated waveforms in the frequency domain. These differences are then aggregated to produce physical and dimensionless frequency plots that better showcase where the differences occur. These findings provide insight into the systematic differences between waveform models. Thereby contributing to our understanding of waveform accuracy and its impact on parameter estimation in gravitational wave astronomy.