2023/04/13 by Giorgio Mentasti, Carlo Contaldi, Mentasti, Giorgio +3 · 2 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #FOS: Physical sciences #General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) #Geophysics and Gravity Measurements #Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM) #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2304.06640
openalex publication_date 2023/04/13 · openalex created_date 2023/04/15 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We build an analytical framework to study the observability of anisotropies and a net chiral polarization of the Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background (SGWB) with a generic network of ground-based detectors. We apply this formalism to perform a Fisher forecast of the performance of a network consisting of the current interferometers (LIGO, Virgo and KAGRA) and planned third-generation ones, such as the Einstein Telescope and Cosmic Explorer. Our results yield limits on the observability of anisotropic modes, spanning across noise- and signal-dominated regimes. We find that if the isotropic component of the SGWB has an amplitude close to the current limit, third-generation interferometers with an observation time of 10 years can measure multipoles (in a spherical harmonic expansion) up to ℓ = 8 with \cal O ( 10-3 - 10-2 ) accuracy relative to the isotropic component, and an \cal O ( 10-3 ) amount of net polarization. For weaker signals, the accuracy worsens as roughly the inverse of the SGWB amplitude.