I explore the possibility of resurrecting an old, non-Bayesian computational approach for inferring the source direction of a gravitational wave from the output of a two-detector network. The method gives the beam pattern response functions and time delay, and performs well even in the presence of noise and unexpected signal forms. I further suggest an improvement to this method in the form of a weighting algorithm that usefully improves its accuracy beyond what can be achieved with simple best-fit methods, validating the new procedure with several small-scale simulations. The approach is identified as complimentary to -rather than in competition with -the now-standard Bayesian approach typically used by the LIGO network in parameter determination. Finally, I briefly discuss the possible applications of this method in the world of three-or-more detector networks and some directions for future work.
I expand on the results of a recent work in which a novel weighting algorithm was shown to substantially increase the accuracy of an old, non-Bayesian computational approach for inferring the source direction of a gravitational wave from the output of a two-detector network. While that work was limited to the consideration of circularly polarized gravitational waves, the current analysis shows that the same approach is even more successful when applied to the generic case of elliptically polarized gravitational waves.PACS. 04.80.Nn Gravitational wave detectors and experiments -95.55.Ym Gravitational radiation detectors; mass spectrometers; and other instrumentation and techniques 1 Correspondence to:
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