# A morphology-independent search for gravitational wave echoes in data from the first and second observing runs of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo

## TL;DR

This study applies a morphology-independent Bayesian search method to LIGO and Virgo data to detect gravitational wave echoes, but finds no statistically significant evidence for their presence in the observed events.

## Contribution

It introduces and applies a morphology-independent Bayesian algorithm to search for gravitational wave echoes in LIGO/Virgo data, with no prior assumptions on echo shape.

## Key findings

- No significant evidence for echoes in GWTC-1 events
- Bayesian evidence ratios do not exceed background noise levels
- Smallest p-value observed is 3% for GW170823

## Abstract

Gravitational wave echoes have been proposed as a smoking-gun signature of exotic compact objects with near-horizon structure. Recently there have been observational claims that echoes are indeed present in stretches of data from Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo immediately following gravitational wave signals from presumed binary black hole mergers, as well as a binary neutron star merger. In this paper we deploy a morphology-independent search algorithm for echoes introduced in Tsang et al., Phys. Rev. D 98, 024023 (2018), which (a) is able to accurately reconstruct a possible echoes signal with minimal assumptions about their morphology, and (b) computes Bayesian evidences for the hypotheses that the data contain a signal, an instrumental glitch, or just stationary, Gaussian noise. Here we apply this analysis method to all the significant events in the first Gravitational Wave Transient Catalog (GWTC-1), which comprises the signals from binary black hole and binary neutron star coalescences found during the first and second observing runs of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo. In all cases, the ratios of evidences for signal versus noise and signal versus glitch do not rise above their respective "background distributions" obtained from detector noise, the smallest $p$-value being 3% (for event GW170823). Hence we find no statistically significant evidence for echoes in GWTC-1.