E. Holz, Tomasz Bulik, Francesco Pannarale'
bibliography:
- 'b1.bib'
title: 'Double compact objects III: Gravitational-wave detection rates'
---

Introduction
============

Nearly a century has passed since Albert Einstein wrote down the field equations of general relativity. A crucial prediction of his theory is the existence of GWs. Observations of the Hulse-Taylor binary pulsar [@Taylor:1989] and the double pulsar J0737-3039 [@Lyne:2004] leave little doubt of the existence of GWs, with further evidence provided by the recent claim of a detection of a GW-induced B-mode polarization of the cosmic microwave background [@2014arXiv1403.3985B]. However, GWs still elude direct observation. The situation should change in the next few years, when a network of second-generation GW observatories – including Advanced LIGO (Harry, [-@AdvLIGO], henceforth aLIGO), Advanced Virgo [@AdvVirgo henceforth AdV], and KAGRA [@KAGRA] – will start taking data. The unprecedented sensitivity of these observatories will allow them to observe the inspiral and merger of DCOs out to cosmological distances: for example, aLIGO should observe binary neutron stars out to a luminosity distance of $\simeq 450 {\, {\rm Mpc}}$ ($z \sim 0.1$), while DCOs containing BHs will be observable to much larger distances [e.g., @2010CQGra..27q3001A]. Given the cosmological reach of second-generation GW interferometers, a theoretical investigation 