# Astrophysical signal consistency test adapted for gravitational-wave transient searches

## TL;DR

This paper introduces a hybrid gravitational-wave search method called wavegraph, combining modeled and model-independent approaches, and proposes a new signal consistency test to improve noise glitch rejection and search sensitivity.

## Contribution

It develops and evaluates the wavegraph hybrid method for gravitational-wave detection and introduces a novel amplitude profile-based consistency test for enhanced noise discrimination.

## Key findings

- Wavegraph improves detection sensitivity in real LIGO and Virgo data.
- The new consistency test effectively removes loud glitches.
- Enhanced sensitivity for binary black-hole merger searches in low-mass range.

## Abstract

Gravitational wave astronomy is established with direct observation of gravitational wave from merging binary black holes and binary neutron stars during the first and second observing run of LIGO and Virgo detectors. The gravitational-wave transient searches mainly categories into two families: modeled and modeled-independent searches. The modeled searches are based on matched filtering techniques and model-independent searches are based on the extraction of excess power from time-frequency representations. We have proposed a hybrid method, called wavegraph that mixes the two approaches. It uses astrophysical information at the extraction stage of model-independent search using a mathematical graph. In this work, we assess the performance of wavegraph clustering in real LIGO and Virgo noises (the sixth science run and the first observing run) and using the coherent WaveBurst transient search as a backbone. Further, we propose a new signal consistency test for this algorithm. This test uses the amplitude profile information to distinguish between the gravitational wave transients from the noisy glitches. This test is able to remove a large fraction of loud glitches, which thus results in additional overall sensitivity in the context of searches for binary black-hole mergers in the low-mass range.