Observing Gravitational Waves with a Single Detector

Abstract

A major challenge of any search for gravitational waves is to distinguish true astrophysical signals from those of terrestrial origin. Gravitational-wave experiments therefore make use of multiple detectors, considering only those signals which appear in coincidence in two or more instruments. It is unclear, however, how to interpret loud gravitational-wave candidates observed when only one detector is operational. In this paper, we demonstrate that the observed rate of binary black hole mergers can be leveraged in order to make confident detections of gravitational-wave signals with one detector alone. We quantify detection confidences in terms of the probability $P(S)$ that a signal candidate is of astrophysical origin. We find that, at current levels of instrumental sensitivity, loud signal candidates observed with a single Advanced LIGO detector can be assigned $P(S)\gtrsim 0.4$. In the future, Advanced LIGO may be able to observe single-detector events with confidences exceeding $P(S)\sim 90\%$.

8 pages, 4 figures; published in CQG; minor updates to match published version

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• A Search for Gravitational Waves from Binary Mergers with a Single Observatory
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• A Joint Fermi-GBM and LIGO/Virgo Analysis of Compact Binary Mergers From the First and Second Gravitational-wave Observing Runs
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• Physical Implications of the Sub-threshold GRB GBM-190816 and its Associated Sub-threshold Gravitational Wave Event
• Assessing gravitational-wave binary black hole candidates with Bayesian odds
• Search for Advanced LIGO Single Interferometer Compact Binary Coalescence Signals in Coincidence with Gamma-Ray Events in Fermi-GBM
• Neural network time-series classifiers for gravitational-wave searches in single-detector periods
• Missed opportunities: GRB 211211A and the case for continual gravitational-wave coverage with a single observatory
• Inferring the Astrophysical Population of Gravitational Wave Sources in the Presence of Noise Transients