Search for a stochastic gravitational-wave signal in the second round of the Mock LISA Data Challenges

Abstract

The analysis method currently proposed to search for isotropic stochastic radiation of primordial or astrophysical origin with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) relies on the combined use of two LISA channels, one of which is insensitive to gravitational waves, such as the symmetrised Sagnac. For this method to work, it is essential to know how the instrumental noise power in the two channels are related to one another; however, no quantitative estimates of this key information are available to date. The purpose of our study is to assess the performance of the symmetrised Sagnac method for different levels of prior information regarding the instrumental noise. We develop a general approach in the framework of Bayesian inference and an end-to-end analysis algorithm based on Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods to compute the posterior probability density functions of the relevant model parameters. We apply this method to data released as part of the second round of the Mock LISA Data Challenges. For the selected (and somewhat idealised) cases considered here, we find that a prior uncertainty of a factor ~2 in the ratio between the power of the instrumental noise contributions in the two channels allows for the detection of isotropic stochastic radiation. More importantly, we provide a framework for more realistic studies of LISA's performance and development of analysis techniques in the context of searches for stochastic signals.

10 pages, 3 figures, GWDAW12 conference proceedings

References in corpus (6)

• Gravitational wave stochastic background from cosmic (super)strings
• The Mock LISA Data Challenges: from Challenge 1B to Challenge 3
• An overview of the second round of the Mock LISA Data Challenges
• Report on the second Mock LISA Data Challenge
• Report on the first round of the Mock LISA Data Challenges
• Gravitational Wave Sources from New Physics

Cited by in corpus (8)

• The Mock LISA Data Challenges: from Challenge 3 to Challenge 4
• The Mock LISA Data Challenges: from Challenge 1B to Challenge 3
• Science with the TianQin Observatory: Preliminary Results on Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background
• Separating Gravitational Wave Signals from Instrument Artifacts
• Angular and frequency response of the gravitational wave interferometers in the metric theories of gravity
• A LISA Data-Analysis Primer
• Impact of combinations of time-delay interferometry channels on stochastic gravitational wave background detection
• Astrophysics with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna