1999/01/26 by J. D. E. Creighton, Jolien D. E. Creighton · 3 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Seismic Waves and Analysis #gr-qc
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.60.021101
published as Phys.Rev.D60:021101,1999 · 5 pages RevTeX, 4 figures
arxiv created 1999/01/26 · openalex publication_date 1999/06/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
In order to analyze data produced by the kilometer-scale gravitational wave detectors that will begin operation early next century, one needs to develop robust statistical tools capable of extracting weak signals from the detector noise. This noise will likely have non-stationary and non-Gaussian components. To facilitate the construction of robust detection techniques, I present a simple two-component noise model that consists of a background of Gaussian noise as well as stochastic noise bursts. The optimal detection statistic obtained for such a noise model incorporates a natural veto which suppresses spurious events that would be caused by the noise bursts. When two detectors are present, I show that the optimal statistic for the non-Gaussian noise model can be approximated by a simple coincidence detection strategy. For simulated detector noise containing noise bursts, I compare the operating characteristics of (i) a locally optimal detection statistic (which has nearly optimal behavior for small signal amplitudes) for the non-Gaussian noise model, (ii) a standard coincidence-style detection strategy, and (iii) the optimal statistic for Gaussian noise.