Time-frequency detection of gravitational waves - art. no. 102001

We present a time-frequency method to detect gravitational wave signals in interferometric data. This robust method can detect signals from poorly mod eled and unmodeled sources. We evaluate the method on simulated data contai ning noise and signal components. The noise component approximates initial Laser Interferometric Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) interferometer noise. The signal components have the time and frequency characteristics po stulated by Flanagan and Hughes for binary black hole coalescence. The sign als correspond to binaries with total masses between 45M. to 70M. and with (optimal filter) signal-to-noise ratios of 7 to 12. The method is implement able in real time, and achieves a coincident false alarm rate for two detec tors approximate to 1 per 475 years. At this false alarm rate, the single d etector false dismissal rate for our signal model is as low as 5.3% at a si gnal-to-noise ratio of 10. We expect to obtain similar or better detection rates with this method for any signal of similar power that satisfies certa in adiabaticity criteria. Because optimal filtering requires knowledge of t he signal waveform to high precision, we argue that this method is likely t o detect signals that are undetectable by optimal filtering, which is at pr esent the best developed detection method for transient sources of gravitat ional waves. [S0556-2821(99)00622-0].