Gravitational wave detection: stochastic resonance method with matched filtering

Abstract

Along with the development of the interferometric gravitational wave detector, we enter into an epoch of the gravitational wave astronomy, which will open a brand new window for astrophysics to observe our universe. However, the gravitational wave detection is a typical weak signal detection, and this weak signal is buried in a strong instrument noise. To our knowledge, almost all of the data analysis methods in gravitational wave detection at present are based on a matched filtering. So it is desirable to take advantage of stochastic resonance methods. However, the all of the stochastic resonance methods are general based on a Fourier transformation and fall short of the matched filtering as a usable technique. In this paper we relate the stochastic resonance to the matched filtering. Our results show that the stochastic resonance can indeed be combined with the matched filtering for both the periodic and the non-periodic input signal. This encouraging result will be the first step to apply the stochastic resonance to the matched filtering in gravitational wave detection. Moreover, based on the matched filtering, we firstly propose a novel measurement method for the stochastic resonance which is valid for both the periodic and the non-periodic driven signal.