Paper detail

Searches for Cosmic-String Gravitational-Wave Bursts in Mock LISA Data

A network of observable, macroscopic cosmic (super-)strings may have formed in the early universe. If so, the cusps that generically develop on cosmic-string loops emit bursts of gravitational radiation that could be detectable by both ground- and space-based gravitational-wave interferometers. Here we report on two versions of a LISA-oriented string-burst search pipeline that we have developed and tested within the context of the Mock LISA Data Challenges. The two versions rely on the publicly available MultiNest and PyMC software packages, respectively. To reduce the effective dimensionality of the search space, our implementations use the F-statistic to analytically maximize over the signal's amplitude and polarization, A and psi, and use the FFT to search quickly over burst arrival times t_C. The standard F-statistic is essentially a frequentist statistic that maximizes the likelihood; we also demonstrate an approximate, Bayesian version of the F-statistic that incorporates realistic priors on A and psi. We calculate how accurately LISA can expect to measure the physical parameters of string-burst sources. To understand LISA's angular resolution for string-burst sources, we draw maps of the waveform fitting factor [maximized over (A psi, t_C)] as a function of sky position; these maps dramatically illustrate why (for LISA) inferring the correct sky location of the emitting string loop will often be practically impossible. We also identify and elucidate several symmetries that are imbedded in this search problem, and we derive the distribution of cut-off frequencies f_max for observable bursts.