Comparison of filters for detecting gravitational wave bursts in interferometric detectors

Filters developed in order to detect short bursts of gravitational waves in interferometric detector outputs are compared according to three main points. Conventional receiver operating characteristics (ROC) are first built for all the considered filters and for three typical burst signals. Optimized ROC are shown for a simple pulse signal in order to estimate the best detection efficiency of the filters in the ideal case, while realistic ones obtained with filters working with several “templates” show how detection efficiencies can be degraded in a practical implementation. Second, estimations of biases and statistical errors on the reconstruction of the time of arrival of pulse-like signals are then given for each filter. Such results are crucial for future coincidence studies between gravitational wave detectors but also with neutrino or optical detectors. As most of the filters require a pre-whitening of the detector noise, the sensitivity to a nonperfect noise whitening procedure is finally analyzed. For this purpose lines of various frequencies and amplitudes are added to a Gaussian white noise and the outputs of the filters are studied in order to monitor the excess of false alarms induced by the lines. The comparison of the performances of the different filters finally show that they are complementary rather than competitive.