Single-detector searches for a stochastic background of gravitational radiation

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel data analysis method for detecting a stochastic gravitational wave background using a single detector by leveraging differences in coherence times of the signal and noise, enhancing detection sensitivity.

Contribution

The paper presents a new technique that improves stochastic gravitational wave background searches with single-detector data by exploiting coherence time differences, comparable to cross-correlation methods.

Findings

Effective enhancement of SNR by square-root of integration time.

Method applicable to ground-based, space-based, and pulsar timing data.

Comparable sensitivity to dual-detector cross-correlation approaches.

Abstract

We propose a data processing technique that allows searches for a stochastic background of gravitational radiation with data from a single detector. Our technique exploits the difference between the coherence time of the gravitational wave (GW) signal and that of the instrumental noise affecting the measurements. By estimating the auto-correlation function of the data at an off-set time that is longer than the coherence time of the noise {\underbar {but}} shorter than the coherence time of the GW signal, we can effectively enhance the power signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) by the square-root of the integration time. The resulting SNR is comparable in magnitude to that achievable by cross-correlating the data from two co-located and co-aligned detectors whose noises are uncorrelated. Our method is general and it can be applied to data from ground- and space-based detectors, as well as from pulsar timing experiments.