12,966 research outputs found
Robust statistics for deterministic and stochastic gravitational waves in non-Gaussian noise I: Frequentist analyses
Gravitational wave detectors will need optimal signal-processing algorithms
to extract weak signals from the detector noise. Most algorithms designed to
date are based on the unrealistic assumption that the detector noise may be
modeled as a stationary Gaussian process. However most experiments exhibit a
non-Gaussian ``tail'' in the probability distribution. This ``excess'' of large
signals can be a troublesome source of false alarms. This article derives an
optimal (in the Neyman-Pearson sense, for weak signals) signal processing
strategy when the detector noise is non-Gaussian and exhibits tail terms. This
strategy is robust, meaning that it is close to optimal for Gaussian noise but
far less sensitive than conventional methods to the excess large events that
form the tail of the distribution. The method is analyzed for two different
signal analysis problems: (i) a known waveform (e.g., a binary inspiral chirp)
and (ii) a stochastic background, which requires a multi-detector signal
processing algorithm. The methods should be easy to implement: they amount to
truncation or clipping of sample values which lie in the outlier part of the
probability distribution.Comment: RevTeX 4, 17 pages, 8 figures, typos corrected from first version
Subtraction-noise projection in gravitational-wave detector networks
In this paper, we present a successful implementation of a subtraction-noise
projection method into a simple, simulated data analysis pipeline of a
gravitational-wave search. We investigate the problem to reveal a weak
stochastic background signal which is covered by a strong foreground of
compact-binary coalescences. The foreground which is estimated by matched
filters, has to be subtracted from the data. Even an optimal analysis of
foreground signals will leave subtraction noise due to estimation errors of
template parameters which may corrupt the measurement of the background signal.
The subtraction noise can be removed by a noise projection. We apply our
analysis pipeline to the proposed future-generation space-borne Big Bang
Observer (BBO) mission which seeks for a stochastic background of primordial
GWs in the frequency range Hz covered by a foreground of
black-hole and neutron-star binaries. Our analysis is based on a simulation
code which provides a dynamical model of a time-delay interferometer (TDI)
network. It generates the data as time series and incorporates the analysis
pipeline together with the noise projection. Our results confirm previous ad
hoc predictions which say that BBO will be sensitive to backgrounds with
fractional energy densities below Comment: 54 pages, 15 figure
Optimal generalization of power filters for gravitational wave bursts, from single to multiple detectors
Searches for gravitational wave signals which do not have a precise model
describing the shape of their waveforms are often performed using power
detectors based on a quadratic form of the data. A new, optimal method of
generalizing these power detectors so that they operate coherently over a
network of interferometers is presented. Such a mode of operation is useful in
obtaining better detection efficiencies, and better estimates of the position
of the source of the gravitational wave signal. Numerical simulations based on
a realistic, computationally efficient hierarchical implementation of the
method are used to characterize its efficiency, for detection and for position
estimation. The method is shown to be more efficient at detecting signals than
an incoherent approach based on coincidences between lists of events. It is
also shown to be capable of locating the position of the source.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figure
Estimation for bilinear stochastic systems
Three techniques for the solution of bilinear estimation problems are presented. First, finite dimensional optimal nonlinear estimators are presented for certain bilinear systems evolving on solvable and nilpotent lie groups. Then the use of harmonic analysis for estimation problems evolving on spheres and other compact manifolds is investigated. Finally, an approximate estimation technique utilizing cumulants is discussed
A mathematical framework for critical transitions: normal forms, variance and applications
Critical transitions occur in a wide variety of applications including
mathematical biology, climate change, human physiology and economics. Therefore
it is highly desirable to find early-warning signs. We show that it is possible
to classify critical transitions by using bifurcation theory and normal forms
in the singular limit. Based on this elementary classification, we analyze
stochastic fluctuations and calculate scaling laws of the variance of
stochastic sample paths near critical transitions for fast subsystem
bifurcations up to codimension two. The theory is applied to several models:
the Stommel-Cessi box model for the thermohaline circulation from geoscience,
an epidemic-spreading model on an adaptive network, an activator-inhibitor
switch from systems biology, a predator-prey system from ecology and to the
Euler buckling problem from classical mechanics. For the Stommel-Cessi model we
compare different detrending techniques to calculate early-warning signs. In
the epidemics model we show that link densities could be better variables for
prediction than population densities. The activator-inhibitor switch
demonstrates effects in three time-scale systems and points out that excitable
cells and molecular units have information for subthreshold prediction. In the
predator-prey model explosive population growth near a codimension two
bifurcation is investigated and we show that early-warnings from normal forms
can be misleading in this context. In the biomechanical model we demonstrate
that early-warning signs for buckling depend crucially on the control strategy
near the instability which illustrates the effect of multiplicative noise.Comment: minor corrections to previous versio
Signal-noise interaction in nonlinear optical fibers: a hydrodynamic approach
We present a new perturbative approach to the study of signal-noise
interactions in nonlinear optical fibers. The approach is based on the
hydrodynamic formulation of the nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation that governs
the propagation of light in the fiber. Our method is discussed in general and
is developed in more details for some special cases, namely the
small-dispersion regime, the continuous-wave (CW) signal and the solitonic
pulse. The accuracy of the approach is numerically tested in the CW case.Comment: Revised version, submitted to Optics express, 15 pages, 6 figure
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