We compare waveforms obtained by numerically evolving nonspinning binary black holes to post-Newtonian (PN) template families currently used in the search for gravitational waves by ground-based detectors. We find that the time-domain 3.5PN template family, which includes the inspiral phase, has fitting factors (FFs) $\ge 0.96$ for binary systems with total mass $M=10–20M_{\odot }$. The time-domain 3.5PN effective-one-body template family, which includes the inspiral, merger, and ring-down phases, gives satisfactory signal-matching performance with FFs $\ge 0.96$ for binary systems with total mass $M=10–120M_{\odot }$. If we introduce a cutoff frequency properly adjusted to the final black-hole ring-down frequency, we find that the frequency-domain stationary-phase-approximated template family at 3.5PN order has FFs $\ge 0.96$ for binary systems with total mass $M=10–20M_{\odot }$. However, to obtain high matching performances for larger binary masses, we need to either extend this family to unphysical regions of the parameter space or introduce a 4PN order coefficient in the frequency-domain gravitational wave (GW) phase. Finally, we find that the phenomenological Buonanno-Chen-Vallisneri family has FFs $\ge 0.97$ with total mass $M=10–120M_{\odot }$. The main analyses use the noise-spectral density of LIGO, but several tests are extended to VIRGO and advanced LIGO noise-spectral densities.

• Received 16 April 2007

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.77.024014