Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Gravitational-wave denoising must handle the full diversity of spinning, precessing binaries, since the recovered waveform underpins parameter estimation, tests of general relativity, and population studies. Matched filtering achieves this at a cost that becomes prohibitive as next-generation detectors push event rates higher; deep learning offers real-time reconstruction, but current methods are developed on narrow parameter spaces, precluding principled comparison and reliable deployment. We present the first controlled comparison of five neural-network architectures for gravitational-wave denoising, trained identically across the full astrophysically-motivated spinning binary-black-hole parameter space. A unifying principle emerges: matching network structure to the spectral anatomy of a coalescence -- inspiral, merger, ringdown -- outperforms brute-force model scaling. Our Multi-Scale Frequency-Aware architecture embodies this via dedicated parallel branches per frequency regime, achieving the best fidelity while using fewer parameters than larger models. It generalizes from simulated training to real LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA data without retraining, recovering merger morphology across confirmed events spanning three observing runs and both detectors, despite training on a single detector's simulated noise. We construct population-level uncertainty bands from denoising residuals, validate their calibration, and stress-test the framework on extended mass ratios and a spin population resembling hierarchical-merger remnants. Applied to real noise with no known signal, the network suppresses its output almost everywhere, with rare exceptions traced to noise transients rather than a general weakness -- indicating the statistic discriminates signal from noise and motivating a future detection study. Released weights give a deployable, reproducible benchmark for future extensions.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Authors: Raha, Rohan, Kumar, Prayush
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: G2487168033, G8724963187
OpenAlex ID: W7213326437