Progress toward the detection of the gravitational-wave background from stellar-mass binary black holes: a mock data challenge

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Hauptverfasser: Kou, Xiao-Xiao, Saleem, Muhammed, Mandic, Vuk, Talbot, Colm, Thrane, Eric
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Kou, Xiao-Xiao
Saleem, Muhammed
Mandic, Vuk
Talbot, Colm
Thrane, Eric
author_facet Kou, Xiao-Xiao
Saleem, Muhammed
Mandic, Vuk
Talbot, Colm
Thrane, Eric
contents While the third LIGO--Virgo gravitational-wave transient catalog includes 90 signals, it is believed that ${\cal O}(10^5)$ binary black holes merge somewhere in the Universe every year. Although these signals are too weak to be detected individually with current observatories, they combine to create a stochastic background, which is potentially detectable in the near future. LIGO--Virgo searches for the gravitational-wave background using cross-correlation have so far yielded upper limits. However, Smith \& Thrane (2017) showed that a vastly more sensitive ``coherent'' search can be carried out by incorporating information about the phase evolution of binary black hole signals. This improved sensitivity comes at a cost; the coherent method is computationally expensive and requires a far more detailed understanding of systematic errors than is required for the cross-correlation search. In this work, we demonstrate the coherent approach with realistic data, paving the way for a gravitational-wave background search with unprecedented sensitivity.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_14179
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Progress toward the detection of the gravitational-wave background from stellar-mass binary black holes: a mock data challenge
Kou, Xiao-Xiao
Saleem, Muhammed
Mandic, Vuk
Talbot, Colm
Thrane, Eric
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
While the third LIGO--Virgo gravitational-wave transient catalog includes 90 signals, it is believed that ${\cal O}(10^5)$ binary black holes merge somewhere in the Universe every year. Although these signals are too weak to be detected individually with current observatories, they combine to create a stochastic background, which is potentially detectable in the near future. LIGO--Virgo searches for the gravitational-wave background using cross-correlation have so far yielded upper limits. However, Smith \& Thrane (2017) showed that a vastly more sensitive ``coherent'' search can be carried out by incorporating information about the phase evolution of binary black hole signals. This improved sensitivity comes at a cost; the coherent method is computationally expensive and requires a far more detailed understanding of systematic errors than is required for the cross-correlation search. In this work, we demonstrate the coherent approach with realistic data, paving the way for a gravitational-wave background search with unprecedented sensitivity.
title Progress toward the detection of the gravitational-wave background from stellar-mass binary black holes: a mock data challenge
topic General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.14179