The effect of the recently calculated second post-Newtonian correction on the accuracy of the estimation of the parameters of the gravitational-wave signal from a coalescing binary is investigated. It is shown that the addition of this correction degrades considerably the accuracy of the determination of the individual masses of the members of the binary. However the chirp mass and the time parameter in the signal are still determined to a very good accuracy. The possibility of estimating the effects of other theories of gravity is investigated. The performance of the Newtonian filter is investigated and it is compared with the performance of post-Newtonian search templates introduced recently. It is shown that both search templates can extract accurately useful information about the binary.

• Received 7 March 1995

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.52.2089