Impact of correlated magnetic noise on directional stochastic gravitational-wave background searches

Abstract: One potential factor that could impede searches for the stochastic gravitational-wave background (SGWB), arising from the incoherent superposition of a multitude of weak and unresolvable gravitational-wave signals in the Universe, is correlated magnetic noise at Earth-scale distances, such as the Schumann resonances. As the sensitivity of terrestrial detectors to SGWBs increases, these effects are expected to become even more pronounced, emphasizing the importance of considering correlated noise sources in SGWB searches. In this study, we explore for the first time the impact of this class of noise on anisotropic SGWB searches. We focus on the low-frequency range of 20-200 Hz with a resolution of 1/32 Hz, using data from the LEMI-120 and Metronix MFS-06e magnetometers, located at the sites of the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo interferometers, respectively, during the third observing run. These measurements were then compared with the directional upper limit derived from gravitational-wave data collected during the third observing run of the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration. The results indicate that the magnetic noise correlations are below the interferometers' sensitivity level during the O3 observing run. The potential impact of magnetic correlations on the Advanced LIGO detectors has also been investigated at the A+ design sensitivity level.