Improving astrophysical parameter estimation via offline noise subtraction for Advanced LIGO

TL;DR

This paper presents an offline noise subtraction method using auxiliary sensors to improve the sensitivity of Advanced LIGO detectors, leading to better astrophysical parameter estimation for gravitational wave sources.

Contribution

The study introduces a novel offline noise subtraction technique utilizing auxiliary sensors, significantly enhancing LIGO's sensitivity and astrophysical parameter estimation accuracy.

Findings

Over 20% sensitivity improvement at LIGO Hanford

Enhanced accuracy in estimating source location, masses, and spins

Effective noise removal in time domain data

Abstract

The Advanced LIGO detectors have recently completed their second observation run successfully. The run lasted for approximately 10 months and lead to multiple new discoveries. The sensitivity to gravitational waves was partially limited by correlated noise. Here, we utilize auxiliary sensors that witness these correlated noise sources, and use them for noise subtraction in the time domain data. This noise and line removal is particularly significant for the LIGO Hanford Observatory, where the improvement in sensitivity is greater than 20%. Consequently, we were also able to improve the astrophysical estimation for the location, masses, spins and orbital parameters of the gravitational wave progenitors.