Directional limits on persistent gravitational waves using data from Advanced LIGO's first two observing runs

Document #:

LIGO-P1900053-v6

Document type:

P - Publications

Abstract:

We perform an unmodeled search for persistent, directional gravitational wave (GW) sources using data from the first and second observing runs of Advanced LIGO.
We do not find evidence for any GW signals.
We limit the flux emitted at 25~Hz from point sources with a power law spectrum to be
\( F_{\alpha,\Theta} (0.05-25)\times 10^{-8} ~\unit[]{erg\,cm^{-2}\,s^{-1}\,Hz^{-1}} \) and the (normalized) energy density spectrum in GWs at 25 Hz from
extended sources to be
\( \Omega_{\alpha}(\Theta) (0.19-2.89)\times 10^{-8} ~\unit[]{sr^{-1}} \) where \( \alpha \) is the spectral index of the energy density spectrum.
These represent improvements of \( 2.5-3\times \) over previous limits.
We also consider point sources emitting GWs at a single frequency,
targeting the directions of Sco X-1, SN 1987A, and the Galactic Center. The best upper limits on the strain amplitude of a potential source in these three directions range from \( h_0 (3.6-4.7)\times 10^{-25} \), 1.5\( \times \) better than previous limits set with the same analysis method.
We also report on a marginally significant outlier at 36.06~Hz.
This outlier is not consistent with a persistent gravitational-wave source as its
significance diminishes when combining all of the available data.

Files in Document:

• o2_directional.pdf (file is not accessible)

Other Files:

• o2_directional.tar.gz (file is not accessible)

Topics:

• Stochastic

Author Groups:

• LVC