A new method to find the origin of glitches in ground-based gravitational-wave detectors

Excess transient noise events, or "glitches", impact the data quality of ground-based gravitational-wave detectors and impair the detection of signals produced by astrophysical sources. Identification of the causes of these glitches is a crucial starting point for the improvement of gravitational-wave signals detectability. However, glitches are the product of linear and non-linear couplings among the interrelated detector-control systems that include mitigation of ground motion and regulation of optic motion, which generally makes it difficult to find their origin. We present a method that uses information from instrumental control systems and environmental sensors around the time when glitches are present in the detector's output to reveal essential clues about their origin. We illustrate the method on Advanced LIGO and Virgo data.