• Open Access

Comparison of methods for the detection of gravitational waves from unknown neutron stars

S. Walsh, M. Pitkin, M. Oliver, S. D’Antonio, V. Dergachev, A. Królak, P. Astone, M. Bejger, M. Di Giovanni, O. Dorosh, S. Frasca, P. Leaci, S. Mastrogiovanni, A. Miller, C. Palomba, M. A. Papa, O. J. Piccinni, K. Riles, O. Sauter, and A. M. Sintes
Phys. Rev. D 94, 124010 – Published 8 December 2016

Abstract

Rapidly rotating neutron stars are promising sources of continuous gravitational wave radiation for the LIGO and Virgo interferometers. The majority of neutron stars in our galaxy have not been identified with electromagnetic observations. All-sky searches for isolated neutron stars offer the potential to detect gravitational waves from these unidentified sources. The parameter space of these blind all-sky searches, which also cover a large range of frequencies and frequency derivatives, presents a significant computational challenge. Different methods have been designed to perform these searches within acceptable computational limits. Here we describe the first benchmark in a project to compare the search methods currently available for the detection of unknown isolated neutron stars. The five methods compared here are individually referred to as the PowerFlux, sky Hough, frequency Hough, Einstein@Home, and time domain F-statistic methods. We employ a mock data challenge to compare the ability of each search method to recover signals simulated assuming a standard signal model. We find similar performance among the four quick-look search methods, while the more computationally intensive search method, Einstein@Home, achieves up to a factor of two higher sensitivity. We find that the absence of a second derivative frequency in the search parameter space does not degrade search sensitivity for signals with physically plausible second derivative frequencies. We also report on the parameter estimation accuracy of each search method, and the stability of the sensitivity in frequency and frequency derivative and in the presence of detector noise.

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  • Received 3 June 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.94.124010

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Gravitation, Cosmology & Astrophysics

Authors & Affiliations

S. Walsh1,2,3,*, M. Pitkin4, M. Oliver5, S. D’Antonio6, V. Dergachev7, A. Królak8, P. Astone9, M. Bejger10, M. Di Giovanni11,12, O. Dorosh13, S. Frasca14, P. Leaci14,9, S. Mastrogiovanni14,9, A. Miller14,15, C. Palomba9, M. A. Papa1,2,3, O. J. Piccinni14,9, K. Riles16, O. Sauter16, and A. M. Sintes5

  • 1Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institut), Am Mühlenberg 1, 14476 Golm, Germany
  • 2Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institut), Callinstrasse 38, 30167 Hannover, Germany
  • 3Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53201, USA
  • 4SUPA, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, United Kingdom
  • 5Department de Física-IAC3, Universitat de les Illes Balears and Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya, Cra. Valldemossa km. 7.5, E-07122 Palma de Mallorca, Spain
  • 6INFN, Sezione di Roma 2, Via della Ricerca Scientifica, 1, I-00133 Roma, Italy
  • 7LIGO Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, MS 100-36, Pasadena, California 91125, USA
  • 8Institute of Mathematics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Śniadeckich 8, 00-956 Warszawa, Poland
  • 9INFN, Sezione di Roma, P.le A. Moro, 2, I-00185 Roma, Italy
  • 10Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center, Polish Academy of Sciences, Bartycka 18, 00-716 Warszawa, Poland
  • 11INFN, Trento Institute for Fundamental Physics and Applications, I-38123 Povo, Trento, Italy
  • 12Università di Trento, Dipartimento di Fisica, I-38123 Povo, Trento, Italy
  • 13National Centre for Nuclear Research, 05-400 Otwock, Świerk, Poland
  • 14Università di Roma “La Sapienza,”, I-00185 Roma, Italy
  • 15University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611, USA
  • 16University of Michigan, 450 Church Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA

  • *sinead.walsh@aei.mpg.de

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Vol. 94, Iss. 12 — 15 December 2016

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