Upper limit map of a background of gravitational waves

Abstract

We searched for an anisotropic background of gravitational waves using data from the LIGO S4 science run and a method that is optimized for point sources. This is appropriate if, for example, the gravitational wave background is dominated by a small number of distinct astrophysical sources. No signal was seen. Upper limit maps were produced assuming two different power laws for the source strain power spectrum. For an f^-3 power law and using the 50 Hz to 1.8 kHz band the upper limits on the source strain power spectrum vary between 1.2e-48 Hz^-1 (100 Hz/f)^3 and 1.2e-47 Hz^-1 (100 Hz /f)^3, depending on the position in the sky. Similarly, in the case of constant strain power spectrum, the upper limits vary between 8.5e-49 Hz^-1 and 6.1e-48 Hz^-1. As a side product a limit on an isotropic background of gravitational waves was also obtained. All limits are at the 90% confidence level. Finally, as an application, we focused on the direction of Sco-X1, the closest low-mass X-ray binary. We compare the upper limit on strain amplitude obtained by this method to expectations based on the X-ray luminosity of Sco-X1.

11 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables

Cited by in corpus (38)

• LIGO: The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory
• Detecting gravitational wave emission from the known accreting neutron stars
• Probing non-tensorial polarizations of stochastic gravitational-wave backgrounds with ground-based laser interferometers
• Directional limits on persistent gravitational waves from Advanced LIGO's first observing run
• The Einstein@Home search for periodic gravitational waves in LIGO S4 data
• Searching for gravitational waves from Cassiopeia A with LIGO
• How to adapt broad-band gravitational-wave searches for r-modes
• Long gravitational-wave transients and associated detection strategies for a network of terrestrial interferometers
• Gravitational wave radiometry: Mapping a stochastic gravitational wave background
• Detecting gravitational waves from mountains on neutron stars in the Advanced Detector Era
• Correlated noise in networks of gravitational-wave detectors: subtraction and mitigation
• The cross-correlation search for periodic gravitational waves
• First all-sky search for continuous gravitational waves from unknown sources in binary systems
• Measurement of Quantum Fluctuations in Geometry
• Gravitational waves from Sco X-1: A comparison of search methods and prospects for detection with advanced detectors
• A directed search for gravitational waves from Scorpius X-1 with initial LIGO
• Subtraction-noise projection in gravitational-wave detector networks
• Model-Based Cross-Correlation Search for Gravitational Waves from Scorpius X-1
• Measuring neutron-star ellipticity with measurements of the stochastic gravitational-wave background
• All-sky, all-frequency directional search for persistent gravitational-waves from Advanced LIGO's and Advanced Virgo's first three observing runs
• Detecting very long-lived gravitational-wave transients lasting hours to weeks
• Model-based cross-correlation search for gravitational waves from the low-mass X-ray binary Scorpius X-1 in LIGO O3 data
• Secondary graviton spectra and waterfall-like fields
• Hidden Markov model tracking of continuous gravitational waves from a neutron star with wandering spin. III. Rotational phase tracking
• Stochastic gravitational-wave background searches and constraints on neutron-star ellipticity
• Detecting gravitational waves from accreting neutron stars
• Cosmic backgrounds of relic gravitons and their absolute normalization
• All-sky, narrowband, gravitational-wave radiometry with folded data
• Reducing False Alarms in Searches for Gravitational Waves from Coalescing Binary Systems
• Progress towards Gravitational Wave Astronomy
• A ${\chi }^2$ veto for continuous gravitational wave searches
• Model-independent search for anisotropies in stochastic gravitational-wave backgrounds and application to LIGO-Virgo's first three observing Runs
• Search for an emission line of a gravitational wave background
• A Search For Gravitational Waves from Perturbed Black Hole Ringdowns in LIGO Data
• Source Tracking for Sco X-1
• Applicability of multi-component study on Bayesian searches for targeted anisotropic stochastic gravitational-wave background
• Efficient Search for Detection Candidates Using a Peak Finder Strategy for All-Sky-All-Frequency Gravitational Wave Radiometer
• Deep searches for X-ray pulsations from Scorpius X-1 and Cygnus X-2 in support of continuous gravitational wave searches