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Astrophysics, Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, astro-ph.IM
Abstract:
We describe a stream-based analysis pipeline to detect gravitational waves
from the merger of binary neutron stars, binary black holes, and
neutron-star-black-hole binaries within ~ 1 minute of the arrival of the merger
signal at Earth. Such low-latency detection is crucial for the prompt response
by electromagnetic facilities in order to observe any fading electromagnetic
counterparts that might be produced by mergers involving at least one neutron
star. Even for systems expected not to produce counterparts, analysis of the
data in low-latency for their GW signals is useful for deciding when not to
point telescopes, and as feedback to observatory operations. The pipeline also
operates in an offline mode, in which it incorporates more refined information
about data quality and employs acausal methods that are inapplicable to the
online mode.