On the Amplitude and Stokes Parameters of a Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background

Understand

The direct detection of gravitational waves has provided new opportunities for studying the universe, but also new challenges, such as the detection and characterization of stochastic gravitational-wave backgrounds at different gravitational-wave frequencies.

• In this paper we examine two different methods for their description, one based on the amplitude of a gravitational-wave signal and one on its Stokes parameters.
• We find that the Stokes parameters are able to describe anisotropic and correlated backgrounds, whereas the usual power spectra of the amplitudes cannot -- i.e.
• the Stokes spectra are sensitive to properties such as the spatial distribution of the gravitational-wave sources in a realistic backgrounds.