# Blip glitches in Advanced LIGO data

## TL;DR

This paper investigates the characteristics, occurrence rate, and potential sources of blip glitches in Advanced LIGO data, which impact gravitational-wave detection sensitivity, revealing that most origins remain unidentified despite some correlations.

## Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of blip glitch populations in Advanced LIGO data and identifies correlations with auxiliary channels, highlighting the need for further investigation.

## Key findings

- Approximately two blip glitches per hour of data
- Four subsets correlated with auxiliary or environmental sensors
- Majority of blip origins remain unknown

## Abstract

Blip glitches are short noise transients present in data from ground-based gravitational-wave observatories. These glitches resemble the gravitational-wave signature of massive binary black hole mergers. Hence, the sensitivity of transient gravitational-wave searches to such high-mass systems and other potential short duration sources is degraded by the presence of blip glitches. The origin and rate of occurrence of this type of glitch have been largely unknown. In this paper we explore the population of blip glitches in Advanced LIGO during its first and second observing runs. On average, we find that Advanced LIGO data contains approximately two blip glitches per hour of data. We identify four subsets of blip glitches correlated with detector auxiliary or environmental sensor channels, however the physical causes of the majority of blips remain unclear.