Upper limit map of a background of gravitational waves

Collaboration
Mar, 2007
11 pages
Published in:
  • Phys.Rev.D 76 (2007) 082003
e-Print:
Report number:
  • LIGO-P060029-00-Z
Experiments:

Citations per year

2007201120152019202302468101214
Abstract: (arXiv)
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.
Note:
  • 11 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables
  • 07.05.Kf
  • 02.50.Ey
  • 04.80.Nn
  • 04.30.Db
  • gravitational radiation: particle source
  • background: stochastic
  • upper limit
  • power spectrum
  • interpretation of experiments: LIGO
  • numerical calculations