Abstract. GEO 600 is an interferometric gravitational wave detector with a 600 m arm-length and which uses a dual-recycled optical configuration to give enhanced sensitivity over certain frequencies in the detection band. Due to the dual-recycling, GEO 600 has two main output signals, both of which potentially contain gravitational wave signals. These two outputs are calibrated to strain using a time-domain method. In order to simplify the analysis of the GEO 600 data set, it is desirable to combine these two calibrated outputs to form a single strain signal that has optimal signal-to-noise ratio across the detection band. This paper describes a time-domain method for doing this combination. The method presented is similar to one developed for optimally combining the outputs of two colocated gravitational wave detectors. In the scheme presented in this paper, some simplifications are made to allow its implementation using time-domain methods.

PACS numbers: 95.55.Br, 95.75.Kk, 04.80.Nn, 95.55.Ym

Print publication: Issue 20 (21 October 2005)
Received 8 July 2005, in final form 18 August 2005
Published 27 September 2005