6 Detection Rates

The detection of a gravitational wave signal from merging close binaries is characterized by the signal-to-noise ratio , which depends on the binary masses, the distance to the binary, the frequency, and the noise characteristics. A pedagogical derivation of the signal-to-noise ratio and its discussion for different detectors is given, for example, in Section 8 of the review [124].

In this section we focus of two particular points: the plausible enhancement of the detection of merging binary black holes with respect to binary neutron stars and the way how absolute detection rates of binary mergings can be calculated.