On blind searches for noise dominated signals: a loosely coherent approach

TL;DR

This paper presents a 'loosely coherent' detection method for continuous gravitational waves that balances sensitivity and computational efficiency by controlling signal families, bridging semi-coherent and coherent approaches.

Contribution

The paper introduces a novel 'loosely coherent' detection technique that improves sensitivity while reducing computational costs compared to traditional matched filtering.

Findings

Enhanced sensitivity over semi-coherent methods

Reduced computational costs compared to fully coherent methods

Prototype implementation demonstrates practical feasibility

Abstract

We introduce a "loosely coherent" method for detection of continuous gravitational waves that bridges the gap between semi-coherent and purely coherent methods. Explicit control over accepted families of signals is used to increase sensitivity of power-based statistic while avoiding the high computational costs of conventional matched filters. Several examples as well as a prototype implementation are discussed.