Line tracking applications for Gravitational Wave data and searching for long-duration burst signals

The line-tracking filter iWave can be applied in several different contexts with gravitational wave data from the LIGO interferometers. In this thesis we explore several of these applications with regards to signal processing and hardware. The filter can be used to remove lines which pollute data from the detectors in a less aggressive method than the currently adopted LPEF filter. A technique for recursively removing these lines using iWave is described in this work.

We also discuss the topic of parametric instabilities which pose a limiting factor to the sensitivity of the LIGO detectors. Parametric instabilities are formed from an opto-mechanical feedback loop between the TEM modes of the laser in the 4km arm cavity and the cavity mirrors. A damping scheme to control these instabilities was developed at the LIGO Hanford detector. The results from implementing this scheme are presented in this thesis.

The analysis pipeline X-SphRad is discussed as a method for detecting long duration burst signals in the all-sky regime. This pipeline uses spherical harmonics as an efficient method for measuring correlation between detectors as well as providing statistics for rejecting detector glitches. The results from running separate analyses for 2-detector and 3-detector networks over the O2 observation run are presented.