Search for transient gravitational-wave signals associated with magnetar bursts during Advanced LIGO's second observing run

Abbott, B. P. and Birney, R. and Lockerbie, N. A. and Macfoy, S. and Reid, S. (2019) Search for transient gravitational-wave signals associated with magnetar bursts during Advanced LIGO's second observing run. Astrophysical Journal, 874 (2). 163. ISSN 1538-4357 (https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ab0e15)

[thumbnail of Abbott-etal-AJ-2019-Search-for-transient-gravitational-wave-signals-associated-with-magnetar-bursts]
Preview
 Text. Filename: Abbott_etal_AJ_2019_Search_for_transient_gravitational_wave_signals_associated_with_magnetar_bursts.pdf
Final Published Version
Download (2MB)| Preview

Abstract

We present the results of a search for short- and intermediate-duration gravitational-wave signals from four magnetar bursts in Advanced LIGO's second observing run. We find no evidence of a signal and set upper bounds on the root sum squared of the total dimensionless strain (h rss) from incoming intermediate-duration gravitational waves ranging from 1.1 × 10−22 at 150 Hz to 4.4 × 10−22 at 1550 Hz at 50% detection efficiency. From the known distance to the magnetar SGR 1806–20 (8.7 kpc), we can place upper bounds on the isotropic gravitational-wave energy of 3.4 × 1044 erg at 150 Hz assuming optimal orientation. This represents an improvement of about a factor of 10 in strain sensitivity from the previous search for such signals, conducted during initial LIGO's sixth science run. The short-duration search yielded upper limits of 2.1 × 1044 erg for short white noise bursts, and 2.3 × 1047 erg for 100 ms long ringdowns at 1500 Hz, both at 50% detection efficiency.

ORCID iDs

Abbott, B. P., Birney, R., Lockerbie, N. A. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1678-3260, Macfoy, S. and Reid, S.;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)