Using generalized PowerFlux methods to estimate the parameters of periodic gravitational waves

TL;DR

This paper extends PowerFlux techniques to better estimate parameters of periodic gravitational waves from spinning neutron stars, demonstrating improved detection efficiency through simulations.

Contribution

It introduces generalized PowerFlux methods for parameter estimation of gravitational waves, including polarization and amplitude, enhancing previous approaches.

Findings

Generalized methods accurately estimate polarization parameters.

Simulations show improved detection efficiency.

Effective in Gaussian noise environments.

Abstract

We investigate methods to estimate the parameters of the gravitational-wave signal from a spinning neutron star using Fourier transformed segments of the strain response from an interferometric detector. Estimating the parameters from the power, we find generalizations of the PowerFlux method. Using simulated elliptically polarized signals injected into Gaussian noise, we apply the generalized methods to estimate the squared amplitudes of the plus and cross polarizations (and, in the most general case, the polarization angle), and test the relative detection efficiencies of the various methods.