Gravitational wave detection using multiscale chirplets

Abstract

A generic 'chirp' of the form h(t) = A(t)cos phi(t) can be closely approximated by a connected set of multiscale chirplets with quadratically-evolving phase. The problem of finding the best approximation to a given signal using chirplets can be reduced to that of finding the path of minimum cost in a weighted, directed graph, and can be solved in polynomial time via dynamic programming. For a signal embedded in noise we apply constraints on the path length to obtain a statistic for detection of chirping signals in coloured noise. In this paper we present some results from using this test to detect binary black hole coalescences in simulated LIGO noise.