A targeted coherent search for gravitational waves from compact binary coalescences

TL;DR

This paper introduces a targeted, coherent search method for gravitational waves from compact binary coalescences, optimized for follow-up of electromagnetic transients like Gamma Ray Bursts, enhancing detection reliability.

Contribution

The paper develops a coherent search statistic for Gaussian noise, introduces multiple signal consistency tests, and demonstrates improved noise transient rejection over traditional coincidence methods.

Findings

Effective noise transient rejection with consistency tests

Comparable detection efficiency to Gaussian noise simulations

Enhanced performance in real LIGO data analysis

Abstract

We present the details of a method for conducting a targeted, coherent search for compact binary coalescences. The search is tailored to be used as a followup to electromagnetic transients such as Gamma Ray Bursts. We derive the coherent search statistic for Gaussian detector noise and discuss the benefits of a coherent, multi-detector search over coincidence methods. To mitigate the effects of non-stationary data, we introduce a number of signal consistency tests, including the null SNR, amplitude consistency and several $\chi^{2}$ tests. We demonstrate the search performance on Gaussian noise and on data from LIGO's fourth science run and verify that the signal consistency tests are capable of removing the majority of noise transients and the search gives an efficiency comparable to that achieved in Gaussian noise.