D. Keitel

Search for continuous gravitational waves: improving robustness versus instrumental artifacts

The standard multidetector F-statistic for continuous gravitational waves is susceptible to false alarms from instrumental artifacts, for example monochromatic sinusoidal disturbances (“lines”). This vulnerability to line artifacts arises because the F-statistic compares the signal hypothesis to a Gaussian-noise hypothesis, and hence is triggered by anything that resembles the signal hypothesis more than Gaussian noise. Various ad-hoc veto methods to deal with such line artifacts have been proposed and used in the past. Here we develop a Bayesian framework that includes an explicit alternative hypothesis to model disturbed data. We introduce a simple line model that defines lines as signal candidates appearing only in one detector. This allows us to explicitly compute the odds between the signal hypothesis and an extended noise hypothesis, resulting in a new detection statistic that is more robust to instrumental artifacts. We present and discuss results from Monte-Carlo tests on both simulated data and on detector data from the fifth LIGO science run. We find that the line-robust statistic retains the detection power of the standard F-statistic in Gaussian noise. In the presence of line artifacts it is more sensitive, even compared to the popular F-statistic consistency veto, over which it improves by as much as a factor of two in detectable signal strength.

Hierarchical data-driven approach to fitting numerical relativity data for nonprecessing binary black holes with an application to final spin and radiated energy

Numerical relativity is an essential tool in studying the coalescence of binary black holes (BBHs). It is still computationally prohibitive to cover the BBH parameter space exhaustively, making phenomenological fitting formulas for BBH waveforms and final-state properties important for practical applications. We describe a general hierarchical bottom-up fitting methodology to design and calibrate fits to numerical relativity simulations for the three-dimensional parameter space of quasicircular nonprecessing merging BBHs, spanned by mass ratio and by the individual spin components orthogonal to the orbital plane. Particular attention is paid to incorporating the extreme-mass-ratio limit and to the subdominant unequal-spin effects. As an illustration of the method, we provide two applications, to the final spin and final mass (or equivalently: radiated energy) of the remnant black hole. Fitting to 427 numerical relativity simulations, we obtain results broadly consistent with previously published fits, but improving in overall accuracy and particularly in the approach to extremal limits and for unequal-spin configurations. We also discuss the importance of data quality studies when combining simulations from diverse sources, how detailed error budgets will be necessary for further improvements of these already highly accurate fits, and how this first detailed study of unequal-spin effects helps in choosing the most informative parameters for future numerical relativity runs.

Octahedron configuration for a displacement noise-cancelling gravitational wave detector in space

We study for the first time a three-dimensional octahedron constellation for a space-based gravitational wave detector, which we call the octahedral gravitational observatory (OGO). With six spacecraft the constellation is able to remove laser frequency noise and acceleration disturbances from the gravitational wave signal without needing LISA-like drag-free control, thereby simplifying the payloads and placing less stringent demands on the thrusters. We generalize LISA’s time-delay interferometry to displacement noise free interferometry (DFI) by deriving a set of generators for those combinations of the data streams that cancel laser and acceleration noise. However, the three-dimensional configuration makes orbit selection complicated. So far, only a halo orbit near the Lagrangian point L1 has been found to be stable enough, and this allows only short arms up to 1400 km. We derive the sensitivity curve of OGO with this arm length, resulting in a peak sensitivity of about \(2\times 10^{-23}\,\) Hz \({}^{-1/2}\) near 100 Hz. We compare this version of OGO to the present generation of ground-based detectors and to some future detectors. We also investigate the scientific potentials of such a detector, which include observing gravitational waves from compact binary coalescences, the stochastic background, and pulsars as well as the possibility to test alternative theories of gravity. We find a mediocre performance level for this short arm length detector, between those of initial and advanced ground-based detectors. Thus, actually building a space-based detector of this specific configuration does not seem very efficient. However, when alternative orbits that allow for longer detector arms can be found, a detector with much improved science output could be constructed using the octahedron configuration and DFI solutions demonstrated in this chapter. Also, since the sensitivity of a DFI detector is limited mainly by shot noise, we discuss how the overall sensitivity could be improved by using advanced technologies that reduce this particular noise source.

Hierarchical follow-up of subthreshold candidates of an all-sky Einstein@Home search for continuous gravitational waves on LIGO sixth science run data

We report results of an all-sky search for periodic gravitational waves with frequency between 50 and 510 Hz from isolated compact objects, e.g., neutron stars. A new hierarchical multistage approach is taken, supported by the computing power of the Einstein@Home project, allowing us to probe more deeply than ever before. 16 million subthreshold candidates from the initial search [LIGO Scientific and Virgo Collaborations, Phys. Rev. D 94, 102002 (2016)] are followed up in four stages. None of those candidates is consistent with an isolated gravitational wave emitter, and 90% confidence level upper limits are placed on the amplitudes of continuous waves from the target population. Between 170.5 and 171 Hz, we set the most constraining 90% confidence upper limit on the strain amplitude

Robust semicoherent searches for continuous gravitational waves with noise and signal models including hours to days long transients

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Constrained probability distributions of correlation functions

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An Einstein@home search for continuous gravitational waves from Cassiopeia A

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OctApps: a library of Octave functions for continuous gravitational-wave data analysis

, while at the high end of our frequency range, we achieve an upper limit of

Gravitational waves: search results, data analysis and parameter estimation: Amaldi 10 Parallel Session C2

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Faster search for long gravitational-wave transients: GPU implementation of the transient

. These are the most constraining all-sky upper limits to date and constrain the ellipticity of rotating compact objects emitting at 300 Hz at a distance