2025/03/28 by P. B. Covas, Covas, P. B., R. Prix +1
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #FOS: Physical sciences #General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Statistical Mechanics and Entropy
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2503.22504
openalex publication_date 2025/03/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Many searches for continuous gravitational waves face significant computational challenges due to the need to explore large parameter spaces characterized by unknown parameters. Parameter-space metrics are used to predict the relative loss of signal power when the searched parameters differ from the true signal parameters. In this paper we present generalized parameter-space metrics for the F-statistic (a detection statistic used in many searches) that improve upon previous idealized metrics by incorporating realistic effects such as data gaps and varying noise floors. We derive a new marginalized F-statistic metric that is more accurate than the previous averaged F-statistic metric, especially for short coherent segments. We also derive a more accurate semi-coherent metric that properly accounts for the signal-power variability over segments. We provide numerical tests illustrating that the new generalized metrics provide more accurate mismatch predictions than previous expressions. More accurate metrics can result in a reduced number of templates needed for a given search, a feature that could improve the sensitivity of future searches.