The impact of seasonality over the sensitivity of Einstein Telescope and the SNR of CBC signals at the Sardinia candidate site
Abstract
This work presents the first investigation of the impact of seasonal variations in seismic noise on the low-frequency performance of the Einstein Telescope (ET) at the Sardinia candidate site, focusing on their effect on compact binary coalescence signals. Using seismic data collected between 2022 and 2025 from a deep borehole, we characterize the seasonal variability of the seismic noise and identify the months of July and December as representative best- and worst-case conditions. The measured seismic spectra are used to estimate the Newtonian noise contribution in the 2--10 Hz frequency range and to derive corresponding modifications to the ET design sensitivity. These sensitivity curves are then used in simulations of binary neutron star and intermediate-mass black hole signals in the triangular ET configuration to quantify the resulting changes in signal-to-noise ratio. We find that median seasonal conditions produce only minor changes in the expected SNR, with deviations from the design case typically below 2%. Larger effects are found for the upper tail of the December noise distribution, where the average SNR loss reaches approximately 20--25%. These results indicate that seasonal seismic variability at the Sardinia candidate site has a limited impact on the low-frequency performance of ET under typical conditions.
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BibTeX
@misc{giovanni2026impact,
title = {{The impact of seasonality over the sensitivity of Einstein Telescope and the SNR of CBC signals at the Sardinia candidate site}},
author = {Matteo Di Giovanni and Davide Rozza and Giovanni Diaferia and Andrea Contu and Rosario De Rosa and Carlo Giunchi and Luca Naticchioni and Marco Olivieri and Annalisa Allocca and Enrico Calloni and Giovanni Luca Cardello and Luciano Errico and Giovanni Losurdo and Irene Molinari and Lucia Trozzo and Alessandro Cardini and Domenico D'Urso},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2605.18135},
eprint = {2605.18135},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.18135},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - The impact of seasonality over the sensitivity of Einstein Telescope and the SNR of CBC signals at the Sardinia candidate site
AU - Matteo Di Giovanni
AU - Davide Rozza
AU - Giovanni Diaferia
AU - Andrea Contu
AU - Rosario De Rosa
AU - Carlo Giunchi
AU - Luca Naticchioni
AU - Marco Olivieri
AU - Annalisa Allocca
AU - Enrico Calloni
AU - Giovanni Luca Cardello
AU - Luciano Errico
AU - Giovanni Losurdo
AU - Irene Molinari
AU - Lucia Trozzo
AU - Alessandro Cardini
AU - Domenico D'Urso
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/08
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2605.18135
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.18135
AB - This work presents the first investigation of the impact of seasonal variations in seismic noise on the low-frequency performance of the Einstein Telescope (ET) at the Sardinia candidate site, focusing on their effect on compact binary coalescence signals. Using seismic data collected between 2022 and 2025 from a deep borehole, we characterize the seasonal variability of the seismic noise and identify the months of July and December as representative best- and worst-case conditions. The measured seismic spectra are used to estimate the Newtonian noise contribution in the 2--10 Hz frequency range and to derive corresponding modifications to the ET design sensitivity. These sensitivity curves are then used in simulations of binary neutron star and intermediate-mass black hole signals in the triangular ET configuration to quantify the resulting changes in signal-to-noise ratio. We find that median seasonal conditions produce only minor changes in the expected SNR, with deviations from the design case typically below 2%. Larger effects are found for the upper tail of the December noise distribution, where the average SNR loss reaches approximately 20--25%. These results indicate that seasonal seismic variability at the Sardinia candidate site has a limited impact on the low-frequency performance of ET under typical conditions.
ER -