| Abstract: |
Supermassive black hole binaries are expected to emit gravitational waves during inspiral and merger, the latter of which occurs around a frequency of 10^-6 Hz. A "frequency gap" in detection currently exists here, in between pulsar timing arrays and LISA. Detection of GWs using relative astrometry, where GWs at Earth cause apparent angular changes in the positions of stars on the sky, offers a promising method for probing this microhertz frequency range. In this talk, I will discuss data analysis methods we have developed for upcoming constraints on monochromatic GWs using astrometric data from the Kepler Space Telescope. Repurposing Kepler data for GW searches is challenging, with complex systematics associated with the telescope leading to non-stationary noise. In addition, the large size of the dataset (~400 GB) requires techniques for efficiently evaluating the Bayesian likelihood in a search. I will detail how we are able to remove systematics, model noise, and compress the dataset for our search. Finally, I will talk about recent work in using reduced-order quadratures in the time domain to extend our search to inspiral waveforms, and potential applications for non-stationary noise in LVK, LISA and pulsar timing arrays.
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