Navigating Unknowns: Deep Learning Robustness for Gravitational Wave Signal Reconstruction

We present a rapid and reliable deep learning-based method for gravitational wave signal reconstruction from elusive, generic binary black hole mergers in LIGO data. We demonstrate that our model, AWaRe, effectively recovers gravitational waves with parameters it has not encountered during training. This includes features like higher black hole masses, additional harmonics, eccentricity, and varied waveform systematics, which introduce complex modulations in the waveform's amplitudes and phases. The accurate reconstructions of these unseen signal characteristics demonstrates AWaRe's ability to handle complex features in the waveforms. By directly incorporating waveform reconstruction uncertainty estimation into the AWaRe framework, we show that for real gravitational wave events, the uncertainties in AWaRe's reconstructions align closely with those achieved by benchmark algorithms like BayesWave and coherent WaveBurst. The robustness of our model to real gravitational wave events and its ability to extrapolate to unseen data open new avenues for investigations in various aspects of gravitational wave astrophysics and data analysis, including tests of General Relativity and the enhancement of current gravitational wave search methodologies.