An Analysis of LIGO Glitches Using t-SNE During the First Part of the Fourth LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Observing Run (2512.03440v1)

Abstract: This paper presents an analysis of noise transients observed in LIGO data during the first part of the fourth observing run, using the unsupervised machine learning technique t-distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding (t-SNE) to examine the behavior of glitch groups. Based on the t-SNE output, we apply Agglomerative Clustering in combination with the Silhouette Score to determine the optimal number of groups. We then track these groups over time and investigate correlations between their occurrence and environmental or instrumental conditions. At the Livingston observatory, the most common glitches during O4a were seasonal and associated with ground motion, whereas at Hanford, the most prevalent glitches were related to instrumental conditions.