Exploiting Large-Scale Correlations to Detect Continuous Gravitational Waves

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel hierarchical method that leverages large-scale parameter-space correlations to significantly improve the sensitivity of continuous gravitational wave detection while reducing computational costs.

Contribution

The paper presents an optimal incoherent combination technique exploiting parameter-space correlations, enhancing detection sensitivity and computational efficiency in gravitational wave searches.

Findings

Sensitivity increased by over 100 times compared to previous methods

Probed a larger spatial volume for gravitational wave sources

Reduced computational cost of continuous wave searches

Abstract

Fully coherent searches (over realistic ranges of parameter space and year-long observation times) for unknown sources of continuous gravitational waves are computationally prohibitive. Less expensive hierarchical searches divide the data into shorter segments which are analyzed coherently, then detection statistics from different segments are combined incoherently. The novel method presented here solves the long-standing problem of how best to do the incoherent combination. The optimal solution exploits large-scale parameter-space correlations in the coherent detection statistic. Application to simulated data shows dramatic sensitivity improvements compared with previously available (ad hoc) methods, increasing the spatial volume probed by more than 2 orders of magnitude at lower computational cost.