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Comparison of maximum-likelihood mapping methods for gravitational-wave backgrounds
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Title: | Comparison of maximum-likelihood mapping methods for gravitational-wave backgrounds |
Authors: | Renzini, A Romano, JD Contaldi, CR Cornish, NJ |
Item Type: | Journal Article |
Abstract: | Detection of a stochastic background of gravitational waves is likely to occur in the next few years. Beyond searches for the isotropic component of a stochastic gravitational-wave background, there have been various mapping methods proposed to target anisotropic backgrounds. Some of these methods have been applied to data taken by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) and Virgo. Specifically, these directional searches have focused on mapping the intensity of the signal on the sky via maximum-likelihood solutions. We compare this intensity mapping approach to a previously proposed, but never employed, amplitude-phase mapping method to understand whether this latter approach may be employed in future searches. We build up our understanding of the differences between these two approaches by analyzing simple toy models of time-stream data, and we run mock-data mapping tests for the two methods. We find that the amplitude-phase method is only applicable to the case of a background which is phase coherent on large scales or, at the very least, has an intrinsic coherence scale that is larger than the resolution of the detector. Otherwise, the amplitude-phase mapping method leads to an overall loss of information, with respect to both phase and amplitude. Since we do not expect these phase-coherent properties to hold for any of the gravitational-wave background signals we hope to detect in the near future, we conclude that intensity mapping is the preferred method for such backgrounds. |
Issue Date: | 13-Jan-2022 |
Date of Acceptance: | 4-Jan-2022 |
URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/95292 |
DOI: | 10.1103/PhysRevD.105.023519 |
ISSN: | 1550-2368 |
Publisher: | American Physical Society |
Start Page: | 1 |
End Page: | 12 |
Journal / Book Title: | Physical Review D: Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology |
Volume: | 105 |
Issue: | 2 |
Copyright Statement: | © 2022 American Physical Society |
Sponsor/Funder: | Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) |
Funder's Grant Number: | ST/T000791/1 |
Keywords: | Science & Technology Physical Sciences Astronomy & Astrophysics Physics, Particles & Fields Physics Science & Technology Physical Sciences Astronomy & Astrophysics Physics, Particles & Fields Physics gr-qc gr-qc astro-ph.CO |
Publication Status: | Published |
Article Number: | ARTN 023519 |
Online Publication Date: | 2022-01-27 |
Appears in Collections: | Physics Theoretical Physics |