Directional Limits on Persistent Gravitational Waves Using LIGO S5 Science Data

Author

J. Abadie
Marco Cavaglia, Missouri University of Science and TechnologyFollow
For full list of authors, see publisher's website.

Abstract

The gravitational-wave (GW) sky may include nearby pointlike sources as well as stochastic backgrounds. We perform two directional searches for persistent GWs using data from the LIGO S5 science run: one optimized for pointlike sources and one for arbitrary extended sources. Finding no evidence to support the detection of GWs, we present 90% confidence level (C.L.) upper-limit maps of GW strain power with typical values between 2 - 20 x 10^-50 strain² Hz^-1 and 5 - 35 x 10^-49 strain²Hz^-1sr^-1 for pointlike and extended sources, respectively. The latter result is the first of its kind. We also set 90% C.L. limits on the narrow-band root-mean-square GW strain from interesting targets including Sco X-1, SN 1987A and the Galactic center as low as ≈7 x 10^-25 in the most sensitive frequency range near 160 Hz.

Recommended Citation

J. Abadie et al., "Directional Limits on Persistent Gravitational Waves Using LIGO S5 Science Data," Physical Review Letters, vol. 107, no. 27, American Physical Society (APS), Dec 2011.

The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.271102

Department(s)

Physics

Keywords and Phrases

Confidence levels; Directional search; Extended sources; Frequency ranges; Galactic Center; Narrow bands; Root mean squares; Science-data; Typical values; Atomic physics; Physics; Gravity waves

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

0031-9007

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Final Version

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2011 American Physical Society (APS), All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Dec 2011