arXiv subjects

Patrick Brockill

Publications and source records attributed to Patrick Brockill.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2023

Low-latency gravitational wave alert products and their performance at the time of the fourth LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA observing run

Multi-messenger searches for BNS and NSBH mergers are currently one of the most exciting areas of astronomy. The search for joint electromagnetic and neutrino counterparts to GWs has resumed with O4. To support this effort, public semi-automated data products are sent in near real-time and include localization and source properties to guide complementary observations. In preparation for O4, we have conducted a study using a simulated population of compact binaries and a MDC in the form of a real-time replay to optimize and profile the software infrastructure and scientific deliverables. End-to-end performance was tested, including data ingestion, running online search pipelines, performing annotations, and issuing alerts to the astrophysics community. We present an overview of the low-latency infrastructure and the performance of the data products that are now being released during O4 based on the MDC. We report the expected median latency for the preliminary alert of full bandwidth searches (29.5s) and show consistency and accuracy of released data products using the MDC. For the first time, we report the expected median latency for triggers from early warning searches (-3.1s), which are new in O4 and target neutron star mergers during inspiral phase. This paper provides a performance overview for LVK low-latency alert infrastructure and data products using the MDC and serves as a useful reference for the interpretation of O4 detections.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2023

QoQ: a Q-transform based test for Gravitational Wave transient events

The observation of transient gravitational waves is hindered by the presence of transient noise, colloquially referred to as glitches. These glitches can often be misidentified as gravitational waves by searches for unmodeled transients using the excess-power type of methods and sometimes even excite template waveforms for compact binary coalescences while using matched filter techniques. They thus create a significant background in the searches. This background is more critical in getting identified promptly and efficiently within the context of real-time searches for gravitational-wave transients. Such searches are the ones that have enabled multi-messenger astrophysics with the start of the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo data taking in 2015 and they will continue to enable the field for further discoveries. With this work we propose and demonstrate the use of a signal-based test that quantifies the fidelity of the time-frequency decomposition of the putative signal based on first principles on how astrophysical transients are expected to be registered in the detectors and empirically measuring the instrumental noise. It is based on the Q-transform and a measure of the occupancy of the corresponding time-frequency pixels over select time-frequency volumes; we call it ``QoQ''. Our method shows a 40% reduction in the number of retraction of public alerts that were issued by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaborations during the third observing run with negligible loss in sensitivity. Receiver Operator Characteristic measurements suggest the method can be used in online and offline searches for transients, reducing their background significantly.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2021

Template bank for spinning compact binary mergers in the second observation run of Advanced LIGO and the first observation run of Advanced Virgo

We describe the methods used to construct the aligned-spin template bank of gravitational waveforms used by the GstLAL-based inspiral pipeline to analyze data from the second observing run of Advanced LIGO and the first observing run of advanced Virgo. The bank expands upon the parameter space covered during the first observing run, including coverage for merging compact binary systems with total mass between 2 $\mathrm{M}_{\odot}$ and 400 $\mathrm{M}_{\odot}$ and mass ratios between 1 and 97.988. Thus the systems targeted include merging neutron star-neutron star systems, neutron star-black hole binaries, and black hole-black hole binaries expanding into the intermediate-mass range. Component masses less than 2 $\mathrm{M}_{\odot}$ have allowed (anti-)aligned spins between $\pm0.05$ while component masses greater than 2 $\mathrm{M}_{\odot}$ have allowed (anti-)aligned between $\pm0.999$. The bank placement technique combines a stochastic method with a new grid-bank method to better isolate noisy templates, resulting in a total of 677,000 templates.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2021

First demonstration of early warning gravitational wave alerts

Gravitational-wave observations became commonplace in Advanced LIGO-Virgo's recently concluded third observing run. 56 non-retracted candidates were identified and publicly announced in near real time. Gravitational waves from binary neutron star mergers, however, remain of special interest since they can be precursors to high-energy astrophysical phenomena like $γ$-ray bursts and kilonovae. While late-time electromagnetic emissions provide important information about the astrophysical processes within, the prompt emission along with gravitational waves uniquely reveals the extreme matter and gravity during - and in the seconds following - merger. Rapid communication of source location and properties from the gravitational-wave data is crucial to facilitate multi-messenger follow-up of such sources. This is especially enabled if the partner facilities are forewarned via an early-warning (pre-merger) alert. Here we describe the commissioning and performance of such a low-latency infrastructure within LIGO-Virgo. We present results from an end-to-end mock data challenge that detects binary neutron star mergers and alerts partner facilities before merger. We set expectations for these alerts in future observing runs.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2019

The GstLAL Search Analysis Methods for Compact Binary Mergers in Advanced LIGO's Second and Advanced Virgo's First Observing Runs

After their successful first observing run (September 12, 2015 - January 12, 2016), the Advanced LIGO detectors were upgraded to increase their sensitivity for the second observing run (November 30, 2016 - August 26, 2017). The Advanced Virgo detector joined the second observing run on August 1, 2017. We discuss the updates that happened during this period in the GstLAL-based inspiral pipeline, which is used to detect gravitational waves from the coalescence of compact binaries both in low latency and an offline configuration. These updates include deployment of a zero-latency whitening filter to reduce the over-all latency of the pipeline by up to 32 seconds, incorporation of the Virgo data stream in the analysis, introduction of a single-detector search to analyze data from the periods when only one of the detectors is running, addition of new parameters to the likelihood ratio ranking statistic, increase in the parameter space of the search, and introduction of a template mass-dependent glitch-excision thresholding method.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2017

Analysis Framework for the Prompt Discovery of Compact Binary Mergers in Gravitational-wave Data

We describe a stream-based analysis pipeline to detect gravitational waves from the merger of binary neutron stars, binary black holes, and neutron-star-black-hole binaries within ~ 1 minute of the arrival of the merger signal at Earth. Such low-latency detection is crucial for the prompt response by electromagnetic facilities in order to observe any fading electromagnetic counterparts that might be produced by mergers involving at least one neutron star. Even for systems expected not to produce counterparts, low-latency analysis of the data is useful for deciding when not to point telescopes, and as feedback to observatory operations. Analysts using this pipeline were the first to identify GW151226, the second gravitational-wave event ever detected. The pipeline also operates in an offline mode, in which it incorporates more refined information about data quality and employs acausal methods that are inapplicable to the online mode. The pipeline's offline mode was used in the detection of the first two gravitational-wave events, GW150914 and GW151226, as well as the identification of a third candidate, LVT151012.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2001

BPS String Solutions in Non-Abelian Yang-Mills Theories and Confinement

Starting from the bosonic part of N=2 Super QCD with a 'Seiberg-Witten' N=2 breaking mass term, we obtain string BPS conditions for arbitrary semi-simple gauge groups. We show that the vacuum structure is compatible with a symmetry breaking scheme which allows the existence of Z_k-strings and which has Spin(10) -> SU(5) x Z_2 as a particular case. We obtain BPS Z_k-string solutions and show that they satisfy the same first order differential equations as the BPS string for the U(1) case. We also show that the string tension is constant, which may cause a confining potential between monopoles increasing linearly with their distance.

hep-th↗