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General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology, gr-qc
Abstract:
All-sky, broadband, coherent searches for gravitational-wave pulsars are
restricted by limited computational resources. Minimizing the number of
templates required to cover the search parameter space, of sky position and
frequency evolution, is one important way to reduce the computational cost of a
search. We demonstrate a practical algorithm which, for the first time,
achieves minimal template placement for an all-sky search, using the reduced
supersky parameter-space metric of Wette and Prix (2013). The metric prescribes
a constant template density in the signal parameters, which permits that
templates be placed at the vertices of a lattice. We demonstrate how to ensure
complete coverage of the parameter space, including in particular at its
boundaries. The number of templates generated by the algorithm is compared to
theoretical estimates, and to previous predictions by Brady et al. (1998). The
algorithm may be applied to any search parameter space with a constant template
density, which includes semicoherent searches and searches targeting known
low-mass X-ray binaries.
