CENTRA Seminar - Improving Gravitational Wave Detections: From noise characterization to data analysis - 26 maio 2017

The second generation of LIGO detectors have detected two gravitational wave signals in their first science run and are currently acquiring data in their second science run. Improving detectors sensitivity increases the distance at which a GW signal is observable and, thus, increases the potential detection rate. The next detector generation with improved sensitivity are not expected before the next 5-10 years. Meanwhile, we work on reducing the noise level of the present detectors, as they have not yet achieved their design sensitivity. We also work on improving data analysis techniques to extract low SNR signal, such as the Quasi Normal Modes from a binary black hole merger. I will discuss how noise is mitigated and present a stacking technique for measuring the QNM from a population of binary black hole mergers.