A parametric signal plus noise inference framework for short duration non-Gaussian noise transients

Abstract

Gravitational waves are now routinely detected with ground-based observatories, and, through a process known as Bayesian inference, their source properties are inferred. However, terrestrial noise artifacts, often referred to as glitches, commonly overlap astrophysical signals. This invalidates a fundamental assumption of gravitational wave analyses: the noise is no longer stationary and Gaussian. As a result, traditional techniques can provide biased inferences in realistic data. One method for mitigating the effect of glitches is to jointly analyse both the signal and noise in a single framework. In this work, we introduce bilby-antiglitch to infer the astrophysical signal properties in non-Gaussian noise. By additionally including a quasi-physical glitch model to describe short duration non-Gaussian noise transients, we show that unlike traditional techniques, we infer the true source properties of simulated signals contaminated with loud glitches. We also show that bilby-antiglitch prevents false violation claims of General Relativity, and validates the exceptional nature of gravitational wave signals in spurious data.