Importance of shot noise in the search for an isotropic stochastic gravitational-wave background with next generation detectors
Phys. Rev. D 113, 044048 – Published 18 February, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/zkb6-klyh
Abstract
We investigate the impact of shot noise on the stochastic gravitational wave background generated by binary neutron star mergers, and confirm that the overall background can be significantly influenced by relatively few neighboring, loud events. To mitigate the shot noise, we propose a procedure to remove nearby events by notching them out in the time-frequency domain. Additionally, we quantify the cosmic/sample variance of the resulting background after notching, and we study the deviation between the cross-correlation measurement and the theoretical prediction of the background. Taking both effects into account, we find that the resulting sensitivity loss in the search for an isotropic background formed by binary neutron star mergers is minimal, and is limited to below 40 Hz, and to above 40 Hz.
