A Decision between Bayesian and Frequentist Upper Limit in Analyzing Continuous Gravitational Waves

Gholami, Iraj

doi:10.22128/ijaa.2014.3

A Decision between Bayesian and Frequentist Upper Limit in Analyzing Continuous Gravitational Waves

Author

Iraj Gholami

Georg-August-Universitat Gottingen, Institut fur Theoretische Physik, Friedrich-Hund-Platz 1, 37077 Gottingen, Germany Max-Plank-Institut fur Gravitationsphysik, (Albert Einstein Institute), Am Muhlenberg 1, 14476 Potsdam, Germany

10.22128/ijaa.2014.3

Abstract

Given the sensitivity of current ground-based Gravitational Wave (GW) detectors, any continuous-wave signal we can realistically expect will be at a level or below the background noise. Hence, any data analysis of detector data will need to rely on statistical techniques to separate the signal from the noise. While with the current sensitivity of our detectors we do not expect to detect any true GW signals in our data, we can still set upper limits (UL) on their amplitude. These upper limits, in fact, tell us how weak a signal strength we would detect. In setting upper limit using two popular method, Bayesian and Frequentist, there is always the question of realistic results. In this paper, we try to give an estimate of how realistically we can set the upper limit using the above mentioned methods. And if any, which one is preferred for our future data analysis work.

Keywords