by which the MLE should be judged.

    In order to illustrate the model we have considered the Newtonian as well as the first post-Newtonian corrected waveform. We have assumed Gaussian noise, with a power spectrum typical of the LIGO/VIRGO type of detectors. The model we have used, however, is quite general, and robust, and will be relevant to many other parameter estimation problems.
address: |
    Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics,\
    Post Bag 4, Ganeshkhind, Pune 411 007, India.
author:
- 'R. Balasubramanian and S. V. Dhurandhar'
title: 'Estimation of Parameters of Gravitational Wave Signals from Coalescing Binaries.'
---

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

Large scale laser interferometric detectors of gravitational waves, namely, the LIGO [@LIGO] and VIRGO [@VIRGO] and the medium scale detectors, GEO and TAMA are expected to be operational by the turn of this century. Compact coalescing binary systems of blackholes and/or neutron stars are relatively ‘clean’ systems to model during their inspiral and their inspiral waveform can be predicted with a fair degree of reliability. This makes them the most promising sources for broad band detectors, and in particular, the upcoming interferometric detectors cited above. Binary systems are also valuable sources of astrophysical information as one can probe the 