ON SIGNAL ESTIMATION, DETECTION AND INTERFERENCE MITIGATION IN LIGO

This article analyzes the data for the gravitational wave (GW) events observed in the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) detectors, from the viewpoint of signal estimation, detection and interference mitigation. It is shown that the GW events are buried in detector noise and that the GW channel in the LIGO detector does in fact pick up strong 60*n Hz electromagnetic interference (EMI) from power lines. Removal of EMI is a challenging problem and this article analyzes various methods including parametric models to estimate the amplitude and frequency of each impulse. The possibility of EMI from terrestrial and non-terrestrial sources is considered and interference mitigation techniques are investigated.