The angular resolution of space-based gravitational wave detectors

Currently proposed space-based gravitational wave detectors consist of satellite arrays deployed in an equilateral triangle either in the ecliptic plane or in a precessing plane tilted at 60 degrees with respect to the ecliptic. This paper summarizes recent calculations of how well these two types of detectors can resolve the angular positions of two kinds of sources: low-mass compact binary sources and massive-black-hole binaries just before coalescence. Our results show that including higher-order post-Newtonian terms in the gravitational wavefunctions is important when predicting the angular resolution of ecliptic-plane detectors.