Directional limits on persistent gravitational waves using LIGO S5 science data

Abadie, J. and Lockerbie, N. A. and Tokmakov, K. V., LIGO Scientific Collaboration, Virgo Collaboration (2011) Directional limits on persistent gravitational waves using LIGO S5 science data. Physical Review Letters, 107 (27). 271102. ISSN 1079-7114 (https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.271102)

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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.