English

Can LIGO Detect Daylight Savings Time?

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2025-09-18 v2 High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics

Abstract

Yes, it can. Catalogs produced by networks of Gravitational-wave interferometers are subject to complicated selection effects, and the gold-standard remains direct measurements of the detection probability through large injection campaigns. I leverage public data products from the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaborations' 3rd and 4th observing runs to show that there are non-trivial temporal variations within the detection probability that are well-described by a weekly cycle. There are clear differences between weekends and weekdays, between day and night (at the sites), and even between daylight-savings and standard time. I discuss possible causes for this behavior and implications.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2509.11849,
  title  = {Can LIGO Detect Daylight Savings Time?},
  author = {Reed Essick},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2509.11849},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

7 pages, 4 figures

R2 v1 2026-07-01T05:36:44.181Z