Time-frequency detection algorithm for gravitational wave bursts

TL;DR

This paper introduces an efficient time-frequency detection algorithm for identifying short gravitational wave bursts in interferometric data, combining pixel thresholding, clustering, and integrated power thresholds, supported by formal and numerical validation.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel, efficient detection algorithm for gravitational wave bursts with formal false alarm rate modeling and validation through numerical simulations.

Findings

High detection efficiency for a wide class of signals

False alarm rate model accurate within 1% for most parameters

Algorithm outperforms previous methods in computational efficiency

Abstract

An efficient algorithm is presented for the identification of short bursts of gravitational radiation in the data from broad-band interferometric detectors. The algorithm consists of three steps: pixels of the time-frequency representation of the data that have power above a fixed threshold are first identified. Clusters of such pixels that conform to a set of rules on their size and their proximity to other clusters are formed, and a final threshold is applied on the power integrated over all pixels in such clusters. Formal arguments are given to support the conjecture that this algorithm is very efficient for a wide class of signals. A precise model for the false alarm rate of this algorithm is presented, and it is shown using a number of representative numerical simulations to be accurate at the 1% level for most values of the parameters, with maximal error around 10%.