LIGO Document T2200253-v2

Detecting Non-Power Law Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background

Document #:
LIGO-T2200253-v2
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T - Technical notes
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Abstract:
The Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background (SGWB) is the combination of many unknown sources. Unlike known sources lasting a short amount of time, the SGWB is a consistent signal that is always present. Current detectors, such as LIGO, have a limited sensitivity hence most SGWB signals that we expect to see look like a power-law spectrum. However, in the future when detector sensitivity increases there will be a problem in how to describe the SGWB because common theories predicted a turnover in the spectrum.
Since there is so much we do not know yet of the unknown sources it is pivotal to design a model that will be general and generic to detect a SGWB that does not look like a simple power law.
We propose to use current cross-correlation and statistical methods combined with a new method for describing non-power law models to detect SGWB. We propose to use splines and Gaussian processes to define this generic model and test with simulated data.
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