Data analysis techniques for gravitational wave observations

Abstract

Astrophysical sources of gravitational waves fall broadly into three categories: (i) transient and bursts, (ii) periodic or continuous wave and (iii) stochastic. Each type of source requires a di®erent type of data analysis strategy. In this talk various data analysis strategies will be reviewed. Optimal ¯ltering is used for extracting binary inspirals; Fourier transforms over Doppler shifted time intervals are computed for long duration periodic sources; optimally weighted cross-correlations for stochastic background. Some recent schemes which e±ciently search for inspirals will be described. The performance of some of these techniques on real data obtained will be discussed. Finally, some results on cancellation of systematic noises in laser interferometric space antenna (LISA) will be presented and future directions indicated.