# How to extract the masses from LIGO strain data? [duplicate]

I am a Computer science student working on LIGO data. I have seen this well describing link

How were the solar masses and distance of the GW150914 merger event calculated from the signal?

On how to extract the masses from the data.

But I still find it a little difficult despite the good explanation. Can anyone give me a much simpler explanation on how to extract the masses from this data ?

A simple step by step solution would be really helpful

• The simple toy answer: You can extract it by maximizing the following quantity derived from Bayesian analysis: $(s|h(\mathbf{\theta}))-(h(\mathbf{\theta})|h(\mathbf{\theta}))$, where $s$ is the signal $\theta$ are the parameters of this waveform (e.g. chirp mass, distance, etc), $(a|b)=\int \frac{a b^*}{S_n(f)} df$ with $S_n$ being the power spectral density from the LIGO detector and $$h(f) = \frac{1}{r}\mathcal{M}^{5/6}f^{-7/6}\exp(i\psi(f))$$ $$\psi(f) = 2\pi f t_c - \phi_c - \frac{\pi}{4} + \frac{3}{128}(\pi\mathcal{M}f)^{-5/3}$$ To first order approximation – Otto Feb 14 '17 at 1:48