Choice of filters for the detection of gravitational waves from coalescing binaries II: detection in coloured noise

Abstract

We discuss the problem of detecting gravitational waves signals embedded in coloured noise from coalescing binary systems. The signal is assumed to be Newtonian and matched filtering techniques are employed to filter out the signal. The problem is discussed at first for a general power spectral density of the noise and then specific numerical results are obtained for the standard recycling case. Since the signal parameters are unknown, a bank of filters is needed to carry out the signal detection. The number of filters in a bank , the spacing between filter etc. is obainted for different values of minimum strength of the signal relative to the threshold. We also present an approximate analytical formula which relates the spacing between filter to the minimum strength. Finally we discuss the problem of detection probabilities given a data train.