Probing a Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background using a Network of Laser Interferometric Detectors

Gravitational Wave (GW) detectors are coming close to the long awaited direct detection of sources. LIGO and Virgo detectors are operating at either better or close to their first generation goal sensitivity. More ground based and space based detectors are expected in a decade. An exciting new window of astronomy is about to be opened.

GW astronomy aims to probe different kinds of sources, Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background (SGWB) is one of the most interesting ones. The universe is expected to have an SGWB generated by unmodeled/unresolved astrophysical and cosmological sources. Statistically isotropic cosmological SGWB has already caught lot of attention, as it is a direct probe of slow roll nflation. On the other hand, anisotropic SGWB, generated by unmodeled/unresolved astrophysical sources in the nearby universe, dominates the background by several orders of magnitude and can provide important information about the nearby universe not accessible to electro-magnetic astronomy. A gravitational wave radiometer algorithm is well suited for probing SGWB. We present a general analysis framework to efficiently probe SGWB in any given basis using a network of detectors. We study the performance of a network using different figures of merit. Simplicity of this method leads to results which are relatively straightforward to compute, yet provide vital understanding of the overall network performance.