Targeted coherent search for gravitational waves from compact binary coalescences

We introduce a method for conducting a targeted, coherent search for compact binary coalescences. The search is tailored to be used as a follow-up to electromagnetic transients such as gamma-ray bursts. We derive the coherent search statistic for Gaussian detector noise and discuss the benefits of a coherent, multidetector search over coincidence methods. To mitigate the effects of nonstationary data, we introduce a number of signal consistency tests, including the null signal-to-noise ratio, amplitude consistency, and several χ² tests. We demonstrate the search performance on Gaussian noise and on data from LIGO's fourth science run and verify that the signal consistency tests are capable of removing the majority of noise transients, giving the search an efficiency comparable to that achieved in Gaussian noise.