Living with Uncertainty: Gravitational Wave Data Analysis in the Presence of GlitchesConfirmed

by Rhiannon Udall (University of British Columbia)

Thursday Apr 9, 2026, 1:00 PM → 2:30 PM America/Toronto

PI/4-400 - Space Room (Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics)

Since the detection of GW150914 a decade ago, ground based gravitational wave detectors have detected hundreds of compact binary coalescences, offering myriad insights into the universe. These include precise measurements of the masses and spins of compact objects, as well as searches for phenomena including eccentricity, lensed gravitational waves, and violations of general relativity. These studies typically take as given that detector noise is well behaved (stationary and Gaussian), but these assumptions are not realistic in ground based detectors. In this talk, I discuss my work studying how the transient noise events known as glitches can impact astrophysical inferences. First, I will describe case studies for a few real events, including spin measurements for GW191109 and GW200129 and eccentricity measurements for GW190701. I will then discuss a simulation study of the biases which can result from imperfect mitigation of glitches, and from glitches which are too subtle to be directly identified. Finally, I'll conclude with an overview of potential future directions, both in understanding the scope of the challenge and in developing new methods of glitch mitigation.