Directional Limits on Persistent Gravitational Waves Using LIGO S5 Science Data

LIGO Scientific Collaboration, Virgo Collaboration

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

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) strain(2) Hz(-1) and 5 - 35 x 10(-49) strain(2) Hz(-1) sr(-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 approximate to 7 - 10(-25) in the most sensitive frequency range near 160 Hz.
Original languageEnglish
Article number271102
Number of pages9
JournalPhysical Review Letters
Volume107
Issue number27
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 29 Dec 2011
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • SPECTRUM

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