Detection in coincidence of gravitational wave bursts with a network of interferometric detectors: Geometric acceptance and timing

Abstract

Detecting gravitational wave bursts (characterized by short durations and poorly modeled waveforms) requires coincidences between several interferometric detectors in order to reject nonstationary noise events. As the wave amplitude seen in a detector depends on its location with respect to the source direction and as the signal to noise ratio of these bursts is expected to be low, coincidences between antennas may not be very likely. This paper investigates this question from a statistical point of view by using a simple model of a network of detectors; it also estimates the timing precision of a detection in an interferometer, which is an important issue for the reconstruction of the source location based on time delays.