No statistical excess in Explorer/Nautilus observations in the year 2001

TL;DR

This paper critically examines a previous claim of excess coincident events in gravitational wave detector data, demonstrating that the observed data aligns with expected background noise and is not statistically significant.

Contribution

It provides a reanalysis showing that the reported excess is consistent with normal Poisson background, challenging prior claims of gravitational wave signals.

Findings

No statistically significant excess observed in 2001 data

Reported excess is consistent with background noise

Previous claims of detection are not supported by the analysis

Abstract

A recent report on gravitational wave detector data from the NAUTILUS and EXPLORER detector groups claims a statistically significant excess of coincident events when the detectors are oriented in a way that maximizes their sensitivity to gravitational wave sources in the galactic plane. While not claiming a detection of gravitational waves, they do strongly suggest that the origin of the excess is of gravitational wave origin. In this note we show that the statistical analysis that led them to the conclusion that there is a statistical excess is flawed and that the reported observation is entirely consistent with the normal Poisson statistics of the reported detector background.