Upper Limit Map of a Background of Gravitational Waves

Authors

B. Abbott, California Institute of Technology
R. Abbott, California Institute of Technology
R. Adhikari, California Institute of Technology
J. Agresti, California Institute of Technology
P. Ajith, Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute)
B. Allen, Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute)
R. Amin, Louisiana State University
S. B. Anderson, California Institute of Technology
W. G. Anderson, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
M. Arain, University of Florida
M. Araya, California Institute of Technology
H. Armandula, California Institute of Technology
M. Ashley, The Australian National University
S. Aston, University of Birmingham
P. Aufmuth, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität Hannover
C. Aulbert, Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute)
S. Babak, Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute)
S. Ballmer, California Institute of Technology
H. Bantilan, Carleton College, USA
B. C. Barish, California Institute of Technology
C. Barker, LIGO Hanford
D. Barker, LIGO Hanford
B. Barr, University of Glasgow
P. Barriga, The University of Western Australia
M. A. Barton, University of Glasgow
K. Bayer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
K. Belczynski, Northwestern University
J. Betzwieser, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
P. T. Beyersdorf, San Jose State University
B. Bhawal, California Institute of Technology
I. A. Bilenko, Lomonosov Moscow State University
Tiffany Z. Summerscales, Andrews UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-29-2007

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 1.2×10-48Hz-1 (100Hz/f)3 and 1.2×10-47Hz-1 (100Hz/f)3, depending on the position in the sky. Similarly, in the case of constant strain power spectrum, the upper limits vary between 8.5×10-49Hz-1 and 6.1×10-48Hz-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 brightest low-mass x-ray binary. We compare the upper limit on strain amplitude obtained by this method to expectations based on the x-ray flux from Sco-X1. © 2007 The American Physical Society.

Journal Title

Physical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology

Volume

76

Issue

8

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.76.082003

First Department

Physics

Recommended Citation

Abbott, B.; Abbott, R.; Adhikari, R.; Agresti, J.; Ajith, P.; Allen, B.; Amin, R.; Anderson, S. B.; Anderson, W. G.; Arain, M.; Araya, M.; Armandula, H.; Ashley, M.; Aston, S.; Aufmuth, P.; Aulbert, C.; Babak, S.; Ballmer, S.; Bantilan, H.; Barish, B. C.; Barker, C.; Barker, D.; Barr, B.; Barriga, P.; Barton, M. A.; Bayer, K.; Belczynski, K.; Betzwieser, J.; Beyersdorf, P. T.; Bhawal, B.; Bilenko, I. A.; and Summerscales, Tiffany Z., "Upper Limit Map of a Background of Gravitational Waves" (2007). Faculty Publications. 1991.
https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/pubs/1991

Acknowledgements

Retrieved March 5, 2021 from https://arxiv.org/pdf/astro-ph/0703234.pdf