First all-sky upper limits from LIGO on the strength of periodic gravitational waves using the Hough transform

LIGO Scientific Collaboration

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Abstract

We perform a wide parameter-space search for continuous gravitational waves over the whole sky and over a large range of values of the frequency and the first spin-down parameter. Our search method is based on the Hough transform, which is a semicoherent, computationally efficient, and robust pattern recognition technique. We apply this technique to data from the second science run of the LIGO detectors and our final results are all-sky upper limits on the strength of gravitational waves emitted by unknown isolated spinning neutron stars on a set of narrow frequency bands in the range 200-400 Hz. The best upper limit on the gravitational-wave strain amplitude that we obtain in this frequency range is 4.43x10(-23).
Original languageEnglish
Article number102004
Number of pages22
JournalPhysical Review D
Volume72
Issue number10
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Nov 2005
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • PRECESSING NEUTRON-STARS
  • DETECTOR
  • INTERFEROMETER
  • EMISSION
  • GEO-600
  • SEARCH

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