Understanding the LIGO GW150914 event

TY - JOUR

T1 - Understanding the LIGO GW150914 event

AU - Nasselski, Pavel

AU - Jackson, Andrew D.

AU - Liu, Hao

PY - 2016/8/12

Y1 - 2016/8/12

N2 - We present a simplified method for the extraction of meaningful signals from Hanford and Livingston 32 second data for the GW150914 event made publicly available by the LIGO collaboration, and demonstrate its ability to reproduce the LIGO collaboration's own results quantitatively given the assumption that all narrow peaks in the power spectrum are a consequence of physically uninteresting signals and can be removed. After the clipping of these peaks and return to the time domain, the GW150914 event is readily distinguished from broadband background noise. This simple technique allows us to identify the GW150914 event without any assumption regarding its physical origin and with minimal assumptions regarding its shape. We also confirm that the LIGO GW150914 event is uniquely correlated in the Hanford and Livingston detectors for the full 4096 second data at the level of 6-7 σ with a temporal displacement of τ = 6.9 ± 0.4 ms. We have also identified a few events that are morphologically close to GW150914 but less strongly cross correlated with it.

AB - We present a simplified method for the extraction of meaningful signals from Hanford and Livingston 32 second data for the GW150914 event made publicly available by the LIGO collaboration, and demonstrate its ability to reproduce the LIGO collaboration's own results quantitatively given the assumption that all narrow peaks in the power spectrum are a consequence of physically uninteresting signals and can be removed. After the clipping of these peaks and return to the time domain, the GW150914 event is readily distinguished from broadband background noise. This simple technique allows us to identify the GW150914 event without any assumption regarding its physical origin and with minimal assumptions regarding its shape. We also confirm that the LIGO GW150914 event is uniquely correlated in the Hanford and Livingston detectors for the full 4096 second data at the level of 6-7 σ with a temporal displacement of τ = 6.9 ± 0.4 ms. We have also identified a few events that are morphologically close to GW150914 but less strongly cross correlated with it.

U2 - 10.1088/1475-7516/2016/08/029

DO - 10.1088/1475-7516/2016/08/029

M3 - Journal article

SN - 1475-7516

VL - 2016

JO - Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics

JF - Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics

IS - 8

M1 - 029

ER -