Assessing the Readiness of Numerical Relativity for LISA and 3G Detectors

Future detectors such as the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna promise signal-to-noise ratios potentially in the thousands and data containing simultaneous signals. Accurate numerical relativity waveforms will be essential to maximizing the science return. A question of interest to the broad gravitational wave community is: Are the numerical relativity codes ready to face this challenge? Towards answering this question, we provide a new criteria to identify the minimum resolution a simulation must have as a function of signal-to-noise ratio in order for the numerical relativity waveform to be indistinguishable from a true signal. This criteria can be applied to any finite-differencing numerical relativity code with multiple simulations of differing resolutions for the desired binary parameters and waveform length. We apply this criteria to binary systems of interest with the fourth-order MAYA code to obtain the first estimate of the minimum resolution a simulation must have to be prepared for next generation detectors.