A weighted multidetector extension to the 5-vector method for the search of continuous gravitational wave signals

Abstract

The 5-vector method is one of the main pipeline used by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaboration for the analysis of continuous gravitational waves (CWs). This method is a matched filter in the frequency domain based on the splitting in five frequencies of the expected gravitational wave frequency due to the Earth sidereal motion. The data 5-vector is composed by five components, each defined as the Fourier transform of the data at one of the five frequencies where the signal power is split. When dealing with a scenario involving $n$ detectors, the standard multidetector extension combines the data 5-vector from each detector, resulting in a total of $5n$ components. In this letter, we introduce a novel multidetector extension that goes beyond the standard approach. It takes into consideration the varying noise levels and observation times associated with each detector, offering a more sophisticated and effective approach for CWs analysis.