Citation
Udall, Rhiannon Pollard (2025) Robust Gravitational Wave Analysis at the Catalog Scale. Dissertation (Ph.D.), California Institute of Technology. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechTHESIS:05312025-230908742
Abstract
The rapid improvement in the sensitivity of ground based gravitational wave detectors has produced a huge variety of technical insights, but has also brought new challenges in gravitational wave data analysis. In this dissertation I address two of those challenges: the rapid increase in the number of detected events, and the need for robust astrophysical inferences in the presence of transient detector glitches. To manage the number of gravitational wave transients now regularly detected, I developed infrastructure for the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration which monitors and collates the results of many disparate analyses in order to produce the final transient catalog. I implemented physically informed models for scattered light glitches into standard parameter estimation tools, and so that the potential realizations of these glitches can be marginalized over when performing astrophysical inference. This method was used to better understand GW191109, an event from the third observing run with potentially dynamical formation history. These tools were also applied to better understand the behavior of parameter estimation in the presence of glitches, and to search for statistical tests which can identify if parameter estimation is biased by the presence of a glitch.
Item Type: | Thesis (Dissertation (Ph.D.)) | ||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Subject Keywords: | Gravitational Waves; Data Analysis; Detector Characterization; Parameter Estimation | ||||||||||||
Degree Grantor: | California Institute of Technology | ||||||||||||
Division: | Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy | ||||||||||||
Major Option: | Physics | ||||||||||||
Thesis Availability: | Public (worldwide access) | ||||||||||||
Research Advisor(s): |
| ||||||||||||
Group: | LIGO | ||||||||||||
Thesis Committee: |
| ||||||||||||
Defense Date: | 21 May 2025 | ||||||||||||
Funders: |
| ||||||||||||
Record Number: | CaltechTHESIS:05312025-230908742 | ||||||||||||
Persistent URL: | https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechTHESIS:05312025-230908742 | ||||||||||||
Related URLs: |
| ||||||||||||
ORCID: |
| ||||||||||||
Default Usage Policy: | No commercial reproduction, distribution, display or performance rights in this work are provided. | ||||||||||||
ID Code: | 17330 | ||||||||||||
Collection: | CaltechTHESIS | ||||||||||||
Deposited By: | Rhiannon Udall | ||||||||||||
Deposited On: | 03 Jun 2025 19:16 | ||||||||||||
Last Modified: | 10 Jun 2025 19:53 |
Thesis Files
![]() |
PDF
- Final Version
See Usage Policy. 8MB |
Repository Staff Only: item control page