How much spin wandering can continuous gravitational wave search algorithms handle?

Abstract

The canonical signal model in continuous gravitational wave searches is deterministic, and stable over the long integration times needed to separate a putative signal from the noise, e.g. with a matched filter. However, there exist plausible physical mechanisms that give rise to "spin-wandering", i.e. small stochastic variations in the frequency of the gravitational wave. Stochastic variations degrade the sensitivity of matched filters which assume a deterministic frequency evolution. Suites of synthetic spin-wandering injections are performed to infer the loss in sensitivity depth $D_{\mathrm{SW}}$ when compared to the depth for a canonical signal $D_{\det }$. For a fiducial spin-wandering signal that wanders by $\lesssim 5\times 10^{-6}$Hz per day, the depth ratio is $D_{\det }/D_{\mathrm{SW}}=4.39_{-0.27}^{+0.23}$, $1.51_{-0.03}^{+0.02}$, $1.75_{-0.04}^{+0.04}$, and $1.07_{-0.02}^{+0.01}$ for the coherent $F$-statistic, semi-coherent $F$-statistic, CrossCorr, and HMM-Viterbi algorithms respectively. Increasing the coherence time of the semi-coherent algorithms does not necessarily increase their sensitivity to spin-wandering signals.

16 pages, 7 figures. Published in PRD

References in corpus (25)

• Array Programming with NumPy
• Advanced Virgo: a 2nd generation interferometric gravitational wave detector
• Advanced LIGO
• A weakly informative default prior distribution for logistic and other regression models
• Assessing the Role of Spin Noise in the Precision Timing of Millisecond Pulsars
• Searching for gravitational waves from Cassiopeia A with LIGO
• Postprocessing methods used in the search for continuous gravitational-wave signals from the Galactic Center
• The cross-correlation search for periodic gravitational waves
• Directed searches for continuous gravitational waves from binary systems: parameter-space metrics and optimal Scorpius X-1 sensitivity
• Gravitational waves from Sco X-1: A comparison of search methods and prospects for detection with advanced detectors
• Hidden Markov model tracking of continuous gravitational waves from a binary neutron star with wandering spin. II. Binary orbital phase tracking
• Search for Continuous Gravitational Waves from Scorpius X-1 in LIGO O2 Data
• Model-Based Cross-Correlation Search for Gravitational Waves from Scorpius X-1
• SOAP: A generalised application of the Viterbi algorithm to searches for continuous gravitational-wave signals
• Implementation of barycentric resampling for continuous wave searches in gravitational wave data
• A fast search strategy for gravitational waves from low-mass X-ray binaries
• Hidden Markov model tracking of continuous gravitational waves from a neutron star with wandering spin. III. Rotational phase tracking
• Parameter estimation of a two-component neutron star model with spin wandering
• Rapid parameter estimation of a two-component neutron star model with spin wandering using a Kalman filter
• Search for continuous gravitational waves from ten H.E.S.S. sources using a hidden Markov model
• Search for Gravitational Waves from Scorpius X-1 in LIGO O3 Data With Corrected Orbital Ephemeris
• Line-robust statistics for continuous gravitational waves: safety in the case of unequal detector sensitivities
• Apparent dispersion in pulsar braking index measurements caused by timing noise
• Pulse Frequency Fluctuations of Persistent Accretion Powered Pulsars
• Assessing the similarity of continuous gravitational-wave signals to narrow instrumental artifacts