LIGO Seminar

https://caltech.zoom.us/j/87546916051?pwd=aTByZU5WamhUKzlkRVY2bW05bytDdz09

Speaker: Dr. Sharan Banagiri

Title: Catalogs and populations with ground-based and space-based gravitational-wave detectors

Multiple pipelines are used for gravitational-wave searches, both within and outside the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration. These pipelines employ different algorithms and data reduction techniques, producing their own list of triggers. While using multiple pipelines enables us to be optimally sensitive to gravitational waves, they also introduce ambiguity in interpreting catalogs and complicate downstream usage. I demonstrate a statistical formalism for combining information from multiple pipelines and calculating a unified statistic using p-astro. I discuss the computational viability of its application to future catalogs, and its use for population inference and low-latency multi-messenger follow-up.

In the second half of the talk, I will talk about extracting white dwarf astrophysics from LISA data. Binaries containing a white dwarf are a major source of GWs in LISA's mHz frequency band. Most such sources will not be individually resolvable, instead forming a stochastic foreground that contains a wealth of information about white dwarf astrophysics. Extracting this information requires tackling two main challenges – the strongly anisotropic distribution of Galactic WD sources on the sky and accurately fitting the spectral shape of the foreground. I will discuss Bayesian techniques for dealing with them that will also be compatible with global fit efforts.