Bayesian power spectral density estimation for LISA noise based on penalized splines with a parametric boost

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Aimen, Nazeela, Maturana-Russel, Patricio, Vajpeyi, Avi, Christensen, Nelson, Meyer, Renate
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Aimen, Nazeela
Maturana-Russel, Patricio
Vajpeyi, Avi
Christensen, Nelson
Meyer, Renate
author_facet Aimen, Nazeela
Maturana-Russel, Patricio
Vajpeyi, Avi
Christensen, Nelson
Meyer, Renate
contents Flexible and accurate noise characterization is crucial for the precise estimation of gravitational-wave parameters. We introduce a Bayesian method for estimating the power spectral density (PSD) of long, stationary time series, explicitly tailored for LISA data analysis. Our approach models the PSD as the geometric mean of a parametric and a nonparametric component, combining the knowledge from parametric models with the flexibility to capture deviations from theoretical expectations. The nonparametric component is expressed by a mixture of penalized B-splines. Adaptive, data-driven knot placement, performed once at initialization, removes the need for reversible-jump Markov chain Monte Carlo, while hierarchical roughness-penalty priors prevent overfitting. Validation on simulated autoregressive AR(4) data demonstrates estimator consistency and shows that well-matched parametric components reduce the integrated absolute error compared to an uninformative baseline, requiring fewer spline knots to achieve comparable accuracy. Applied to one year of simulated LISA X-channel (univariate) noise, our method achieves relative integrated absolute errors of $\mathcal{O}(10^{-2})$, making it suitable for iterative analysis pipelines and multi-year mission data sets.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_00533
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Bayesian power spectral density estimation for LISA noise based on penalized splines with a parametric boost
Aimen, Nazeela
Maturana-Russel, Patricio
Vajpeyi, Avi
Christensen, Nelson
Meyer, Renate
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Computational Physics
Computation
Flexible and accurate noise characterization is crucial for the precise estimation of gravitational-wave parameters. We introduce a Bayesian method for estimating the power spectral density (PSD) of long, stationary time series, explicitly tailored for LISA data analysis. Our approach models the PSD as the geometric mean of a parametric and a nonparametric component, combining the knowledge from parametric models with the flexibility to capture deviations from theoretical expectations. The nonparametric component is expressed by a mixture of penalized B-splines. Adaptive, data-driven knot placement, performed once at initialization, removes the need for reversible-jump Markov chain Monte Carlo, while hierarchical roughness-penalty priors prevent overfitting. Validation on simulated autoregressive AR(4) data demonstrates estimator consistency and shows that well-matched parametric components reduce the integrated absolute error compared to an uninformative baseline, requiring fewer spline knots to achieve comparable accuracy. Applied to one year of simulated LISA X-channel (univariate) noise, our method achieves relative integrated absolute errors of $\mathcal{O}(10^{-2})$, making it suitable for iterative analysis pipelines and multi-year mission data sets.
title Bayesian power spectral density estimation for LISA noise based on penalized splines with a parametric boost
topic General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Computational Physics
Computation
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.00533