Classifying LISA gravitational wave burst signals using Bayesian evidence

Abstract

We consider the problem of characterisation of burst sources detected with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) using the multi-modal nested sampling algorithm, MultiNest. We use MultiNest as a tool to search for modelled bursts from cosmic string cusps, and compute the Bayesian evidence associated with the cosmic string model. As an alternative burst model, we consider sine-Gaussian burst signals, and show how the evidence ratio can be used to choose between these two alternatives. We present results from an application of MultiNest to the last round of the Mock LISA Data Challenge, in which we were able to successfully detect and characterise all three of the cosmic string burst sources present in the release data set. We also present results of independent trials and show that MultiNest can detect cosmic string signals with signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) as low as ~7 and sine-Gaussian signals with SNR as low as ~8. In both cases, we show that the threshold at which the sources become detectable coincides with the SNR at which the evidence ratio begins to favour the correct model over the alternative.

21 pages, 11 figures, accepted by CQG; v2 has minor changes for consistency with accepted version

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Cited by in corpus (11)

• Importance Nested Sampling and the MultiNest Algorithm
• Automatic physical inference with information maximising neural networks
• BayeSED: A General Approach to Fitting the Spectral Energy Distribution of Galaxies
• Fundamental physics and cosmology with LISA
• BAMBI: blind accelerated multimodal Bayesian inference
• Weighing The Evidence For A Gravitational-Wave Background In The First International Pulsar Timing Array Data Challenge
• Bayesian constraints on dark matter halo properties using gravitationally-lensed supernovae
• A Hamiltonian Monte Carlo method for Bayesian Inference of Supermassive Black Hole Binaries
• An investigation into the Multiple Optimised Parameter Estimation and Data compression algorithm
• Method for estimation of gravitational-wave transient model parameters in frequency-time maps
• Comment on "Bayesian evidence: can we beat MultiNest using traditional MCMC methods", by Rutger van Haasteren (arXiv:0911.2150)