Detection of gravitational waves using topological data analysis and convolutional neural network: An improved approach

Abstract

The gravitational wave detection problem is challenging because the noise is typically overwhelming. Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have been successfully applied, but require a large training set and the accuracy suffers significantly in the case of low SNR. We propose an improved method that employs a feature extraction step using persistent homology. The resulting method is more resilient to noise, more capable of detecting signals with varied signatures and requires less training. This is a powerful improvement as the detection problem can be computationally intense and is concerned with a relatively large class of wave signatures.