Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-15-2017
Journal / Book Title
Physical Review D
Abstract
Spinning neutron stars asymmetric with respect to their rotation axis are potential sources of continuous gravitational waves for ground-based interferometric detectors. In the case of known pulsars a fully coherent search, based on matched filtering, which uses the position and rotational parameters obtained from electromagnetic observations, can be carried out. Matched filtering maximizes the signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio, but a large sensitivity loss is expected in case of even a very small mismatch between the assumed and the true signal parameters. For this reason, narrow-band analysis methods have been developed, allowing a fully coherent search for gravitational waves from known pulsars over a fraction of a hertz and several spin-down values. In this paper we describe a narrow-band search of 11 pulsars using data from Advanced LIGO's first observing run. Although we have found several initial outliers, further studies show no significant evidence for the presence of a gravitational wave signal. Finally, we have placed upper limits on the signal strain amplitude lower than the spin-down limit for 5 of the 11 targets over the bands searched; in the case of J1813-1749 the spin-down limit has been beaten for the first time. For an additional 3 targets, the median upper limit across the search bands is below the spin-down limit. This is the most sensitive narrow-band search for continuous gravitational waves carried out so far.
DOI
10.1103/PhysRevD.96.122006
MSU Digital Commons Citation
Abbott, B. P.; Abbott, R.; Abbott, T. D.; Acernese, F.; Ackley, K.; Adams, C.; Adams, T.; Favata, Marc; Ghosh, Shaon; and Martin, Rodica, "First Narrow-Band Search for Continuous Gravitational Waves from Known Pulsars In Advanced Detector Data" (2017). Department of Physics and Astronomy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works. 56.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/physics-astron-facpubs/56
Published Citation
Abbott, B. P., Abbott, R., Abbott, T. D., Acernese, F., Ackley, K., Adams, C., ... & Camp, J. B. (2017). First narrow-band search for continuous gravitational waves from known pulsars in advanced detector data. Physical Review D, 96(12), 122006.