We present results of a search for periodic gravitational wave signals with frequency between 20 and 400 Hz, from the neutron star in the supernova remnant G347.3-0.5, using LIGO O2 public data. The search is deployed on the volunteer computing project Einstein@Home, with thousands of participants donating compute cycles to make this endevour possible. We find no significant signal candidate and set the most constraining upper limits to date on the amplitude of gravitational wave signals from the target, corresponding to deformations below $10^{-6}$ in a large part of the band. At the frequency of best strain sensitivity, near $166$ Hz, we set 90\%\ confidence upper limits on the gravitational wave intrinsic amplitude of $h_0^{90\%}\approx 7.0\times10^{-26}$. Over most of the frequency range our upper limits are a factor of 20 smaller than the indirect age-based upper limit.
We conduct an all-sky search for continuous gravitational waves in the LIGO O2 data from the Hanford and Livingston detectors. We search for nearly-monochromatic signals with frequency between 20.0 Hz and 585.15 Hz and spin-down between -2.6e-9 Hz/s and 2.6e-10 Hz/s. We deploy the search on the Einstein@Home volunteer-computing project and follow-up the waveforms associated with the most significant results with eight further search-stages, reaching the best sensitivity ever achieved by an all-sky survey up to 500 Hz. Six of the inspected waveforms pass all the stages but they are all associat…
This paper reports on an all-sky search for periodic gravitational waves from sources such as deformed isolated rapidly-spinning neutron stars. The analysis uses 840 hours of data from 66 days of the fifth LIGO science run (S5). The data was searched for quasi-monochromatic waves with frequencies f in the range from 50 Hz to 1500 Hz, with a linear frequency drift \dot{f} (measured at the solar system barycenter) in the range -f/τ< \dot{f} < 0.1 f/τ, for a minimum spin-down age τof 1000 years for signals below 400 Hz and 8000 years above 400 Hz. The main computational work of the search was dis…
We present results of a high-frequency all-sky search for continuous gravitational waves from isolated compact objects in LIGO's 5th Science Run (S5) data, using the computing power of the Einstein@Home volunteer computing project. This is the only dedicated continuous gravitational wave search that probes this high frequency range on S5 data. We find no significant candidate signal, so we set 90%-confidence level upper-limits on continuous gravitational wave strain amplitudes. At the lower end of the search frequency range, around 1250 Hz, the most constraining upper-limit is $5.0\times 10^{-…
Deep Einstein@Home search for Continuous Gravitational Waves from the Central Compact Objects in the Supernova Remnants Vela Jr. and G347.3-0.5 using LIGO public data
We report results of a deep all-sky search for periodic gravitational waves from isolated neutron stars in data from the S6 LIGO science run. The search was possible thanks to the computing power provided by the volunteers of the Einstein@Home distributed computing project. We find no significant signal candidate and set the most stringent upper limits to date on the amplitude of gravitational wave signals from the target population. At the frequency of best strain sensitivity, between $170.5$ and $171$ Hz we set a 90% confidence upper limit of ${5.5}^{-25}$, while at the high end of our frequ…
A search for periodic gravitational waves, from sources such as isolated rapidly-spinning neutron stars, was carried out using 510 hours of data from the fourth LIGO science run (S4). The search was for quasi-monochromatic waves in the frequency range from 50 Hz to 1500 Hz, with a linear frequency drift f-dot (measured at the solar system barycenter) in the range -f/tau < f-dot < 0.1 f/tau, where the minimum spin-down age tau was 1000 years for signals below 300 Hz and 10000 years above 300 Hz. The main computational work of the search was distributed over approximately 100000 computers volunt…
The no-hair conjecture in General Relativity (GR) states that a Kerr black hole (BH) is completely described by its mass and spin. As a consequence, the complex quasi-normal-mode (QNM) frequencies of a binary-black-hole (BBH) ringdown can be uniquely determined by the mass and spin of the remnant object. Conversely, measurement of the QNM frequencies could be an independent test of the no-hair conjecture. This paper extends to spinning BHs earlier work that proposed to test the no-hair conjecture by measuring the complex QNM frequencies of a BBH ringdown using parameterized inspiral-merger-rin…
We describe directed searches for continuous gravitational waves from twelve well localized non-pulsing candidate neutron stars in young supernova remnants using data from Advanced LIGO's second observing run. We assumed that each neutron star is isolated and searched a band of frequencies from 15 to 150\,Hz, consistent with frequencies expected from known young pulsars. After coherently integrating spans of data ranging from 12.0 to 55.9 days using the F-statistic and applying data-based vetoes, we found no evidence of astrophysical signals. We set upper limits on intrinsic gravitational wave…
The early inspiral of massive stellar-mass black-hole binaries merging in LIGO's sensitivity band will be detectable at low frequencies by the upcoming space mission LISA. LISA will predict, with years of forewarning, the time and frequency with which binaries will be observed by LIGO. We will, therefore, find ourselves in the position of knowing that a binary is about to merge, with the unprecedented opportunity to optimize ground-based operations to increase their scientific payoff. We apply this idea to detections of multiple ringdown modes, or black-hole spectroscopy. Narrowband tunings ca…
We report results of an all-sky search for periodic gravitational waves with frequency between 50 and 510 Hz from isolated compact objects, i.e. neutron stars. A new hierarchical multi-stage approach is taken, supported by the computing power of the Einstein@Home project, allowing to probe more deeply than ever before. 16 million sub-threshold candidates from the initial search [LVC,arXiv:1606.09619] are followed up in three stages. None of those candidates is consistent with an isolated gravitational wave emitter, and 90% confidence level upper limits are placed on the amplitudes of continuou…
We present the analysis of a nonlinear effect of parametric oscillatory instability in power recycled LIGO interferometer with the Fabry-Perot (FP) cavities in the arms. The basis for this effect is the excitation of the additional (Stokes) optical mode and the mirror elastic mode, when the optical energy stored in the main FP cavity main mode exceeds the certain threshold and the frequencies are related so that sum of frequencies of Stokes and elastic modes are approximately equal to frequencyof main mode. The presence of anti-Stokes modes (with frequency approximately equal to sum of frequen…
We study the merger rate of dark matter PIMBHs(=Primordial Intermediate Mass Black Holes). We conclude that the black holes observed by LIGO in GW150914 and later events were probably not dark matter PIMBHs but rather the result of gravitational collapse of very massive stars. To study the PIMBHs by gravitational radiation will require a detector sensitive to frequencies below 10Hz and otherwise more sensitive than LIGO. The LISA detector, expected to come online in 2034, will be useful at frequencies below 1Hz but a second space-based detector beyond LISA, sensitive up to 10Hz, will be necess…
We present data on the modulation of the dark port power at the free spectral range frequency of the LIGO 4 km interferometers. It is found that the power is modulated exactly at the tidal frequencies to a precision of 6e-9 Hz.
The Advanced LIGO gravitational wave detectors are second generation instruments designed and built for the two LIGO observatories in Hanford, WA and Livingston, LA. The two instruments are identical in design, and are specialized versions of a Michelson interferometer with 4 km long arms. As in initial LIGO, Fabry-Perot cavities are used in the arms to increase the interaction time with a gravitational wave, and power recycling is used to increase the effective laser power. Signal recycling has been added in Advanced LIGO to improve the frequency response. In the most sensitive frequency regi…
In this paper we design a search for continuous gravitational waves from three supernova remnants: Vela Jr., Cassiopeia A (Cas A) and G347.3. These systems might harbor rapidly rotating neutron stars emitting quasi-periodic gravitational radiation detectable by the advanced LIGO detectors. Our search is designed to use the volunteer computing project Einstein@Home for a few months and assumes the sensitivity and duty cycles of the advanced LIGO detectors during their first science run. For all three supernova remnants, the sky-positions of their central compact objects are well known but the f…
In this work we present the results of a search for continuous gravitational waves from the Galactic Center using LIGO O2 data. The search uses the Band-Sampled-Data directed search pipeline, which performs a semi-coherent wide-parameter-space search, exploiting the robustness of the FrequencyHough transform algorithm. The search targets signals emitted by isolated asymmetric spinning neutron stars, located within 25-150 parsecs from the Galactic Center. The frequencies covered in this search range between 10 and 710 Hz with a spin-down range from $-1.8\times10^{-9}$ to $3.7\times10^{-11}$ Hz/…
Gravitational waves from binary black holes that are gravitationally lensed can be distorted by small microlenses along the line of sight. Microlenses with masses of a few tens of solar masses, and that are close to a critical curve in the lens plane, can introduce a time delay of a few millisecond. Such time delay would result in distinctive interference patterns in the gravitational wave that can be measured with current experiments such as LIGO/Virgo. We consider the particular case of primordial black holes with masses between 5 and 50 solar masses acting as microlenses. We study the effec…
The interferometers being planned for second generation LIGO promise and order of magnitude increase in broadband strain sensitivity--with the corresponding cubic increase in detection volume--and an extension of the observation band to lower frequencies. In addition, one of the interferometers may be designed for narrowband performance, giving further improved sensitivity over roughly an octave band above a few hundred Hertz. This article discusses the physics and technology of these new interferometer designs, and presents their projected sensitivity spectra.
We describe the role of correlation measurements between the LIGO interferometer in Livingston, LA, and the ALLEGRO resonant bar detector in Baton Rouge, LA, in searches for a stochastic background of gravitational waves. Such measurements provide a valuable complement to correlations between interferometers at the two LIGO sites, since they are sensitive in a different, higher, frequency band. Additionally, the variable orientation of the ALLEGRO detector provides a means to distinguish gravitational wave correlations from correlated environmental noise. We describe the analysis underway to s…
We present a method to characterize the noise in ground-based gravitational-wave observatories such as the Laser Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO). This method uses linear regression algorithms such as the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) to identify noise sources and analyzes the detector output versus noise witness sensors to quantify the coupling of such noise. Our method can be implemented with currently available resources at LIGO, which avoids extra coding or direct experimentation at the LIGO sites. We present two examples to validate and estimate the coupling…
We present the analysis of undesirable effect of parametric oscillatory instability in signal recycled LIGO interferometer. The basis for this effect is the excitation of the additional (Stokes) optical mode, with frequency $ω_1$, and the mirror elastic mode, with frequency $ω_m$, when optical energy stored in the main FP cavity mode, with frequency $ω_0$, exceeds the certain threshold and the frequencies are related as $ω_0\simeq ω_1+ω_m$. We show that possibility of parametric instability in this interferometer is relatively small due to stronger sensitivity to detuning. We propose to ``scan…
In this work we re-analyze the data of GW170817, the first binary neutron star (BNS) merger event, in two ways, including the parameterized equation of state (EoS) method and gravitational wave (GW) parameter estimation analysis. Three sets of data, including the combined LIGO/Virgo (HLV) data, the LIGO-Hanford (H1) data and the LIGO-Livingston (L1) data, have been analyzed, respectively. We confirm the bimodal probability distribution of the tidal deformability of GW170817 with the HLV data and resolve the different contributions of H1 and L1 detectors. Our simulation reveals a tendency of ``…
An Optically Targeted Search for Gravitational Waves emitted by Core-Collapse Supernovae during the Third Observing Run of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo
Low mass X-ray binaries are prime targets for continuous gravitational wave searches by ground-based interferometers. Results are presented from a search for five low-mass X-ray binaries whose spin frequencies and orbital elements are measured accurately from X-ray pulsations: HETE J1900.1-2455, IGR J00291+5934, SAX J1808.4-3658, XTE J0929-314, and XTE J1814-338. Data are analysed from Observing Run 2 of the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO). The search algorithm uses a hidden Markov model to track spin wandering, the $\mathcal{J}$-statistic maximum likelihood…
Search for continuous gravitational waves from neutron stars in five globular clusters in the first part of the fourth LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA observing run
University of Michigan（密歇根大学）；Universitat de les Illes Balears（巴利阿里群岛大学）；LIGO Livingston Observatory（LIGO利文斯顿天文台）；Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais（国家空间研究所）；University of British Columbia（不列颠哥伦比亚大学）；University of Melbourne（墨尔本大学）
Scorpius X-1 (Sco X-1) and X-ray transient (XTE) J1751-305 are Low-Mass X-ray Binaries (LMXBs) that may emit continuous gravitational waves detectable in the band of ground-based interferometric observatories. Neutron stars in LMXBs could reach a torque-balance steady-state equilibrium in which angular momentum addition from infalling matter from the binary companion is balanced by angular momentum loss, conceivably due to gravitational-wave emission. Torque-balance predicts a scale for detectable gravitational-wave strain based on observed X-ray flux. This paper describes a search for Sco X-1…
We have examined gravitational wave echo signals for nine binary black hole merger events observed by Advanced LIGO and Virgo during the first and second observation runs. To construct an echo template, we consider Kerr spacetime, where the event horizon is replaced by a reflective membrane. We use frequency-dependent reflection rate at the angular potential barrier, which is fitted to the numerical data obtained by solving Teukolsky equations. This reflection rate gives a frequency-dependent transmission rate that is suppressed at lower frequencies in the template. We also take into account t…
We present the results of an all-sky search for continuous gravitational wave signals with frequencies in the 20-500 Hz range from neutron stars with ellipticity of 1e-8. This frequency region is particularly hard to probe because of the quadratic dependence of signal strength on frequency. The search employs the Falcon analysis pipeline on LIGO O2 public data. Compared to previous Falcon analyses the coherence length has been quadrupled, with a corresponding increase in sensitivity. This enables us to search for small ellipticity neutron stars in this low frequency region up to 44 pc away. Th…
We report the analysis we made on data taken by Caltech 40-meter prototype interferometer to identify the noise power spectral density and to whiten the sequence of noise. We concentrate our study on data taken in November 1994, in particular we analyzed two frames of data: the 18nov94.2.frame and the 19nov94.2.frame. We show that it is possible to whiten these data, to a good degree of whiteness, using a high order whitening filter. Moreover we can choose to whiten only restricted band of frequencies around the region we are interested in, obtaining a higher level of whiteness.
Neutron stars are known to show accelerated spin-up of their rotational frequency called a glitch. Highly magnetized rotating neutron stars (pulsars) are frequently observed by radio telescopes (and in other frequencies), where the glitch is observed as irregular arrival times of pulses which are otherwise very regular. A glitch in an isolated neutron star can excite the fundamental (f)-mode oscillations which can lead to gravitational wave generation. Electromagnetic observations of pulsars (and hence pulsar glitches) require the pulsar to be oriented so that the jet is pointed toward the det…
We show how LIGO is expected to detect coalescing binary black holes at $z>1$, that are lensed by the intervening galaxy population. Gravitational magnification, $μ$, strengthens gravitational wave signals by $\sqrtμ$, without altering their frequencies, which if unrecognised leads to an underestimate of the event redshift and hence an overestimate of the binary mass. High magnifications can be reached for coalescing binaries because the region of intense gravitational wave emission during coalescence is so small ($\sim$100km), permitting very close projections between lensing caustics and gra…
The response of a detector to gravitational wave is a function of frequency. When the time a photon moving around in the Fabry-Perot cavities is the same order of the period of a gravitational wave, the phase-difference due to the gravitational wave should be an integral along the path. We present a formula description for detector response to gravitational wave with varied frequencies. The LIGO data for GW150914 and GW 151226 are reexamined in this framework. For GW150924, the traveling time of a photon in the LIGO detector is just a bit larger than a half period of the highest frequency of g…
We report the results of a directed search for continuous gravitational-wave emission in a broad frequency range (between 50 and 1000 Hz) from the central compact object of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A (Cas A). The data comes from the sixth science run of LIGO and the search is performed on the volunteer distributed computing network Einstein@Home. We find no significant signal candidate, and set the most constraining upper limits to date on the gravitational-wave emission from Cas A, which beat the indirect age-based upper limit across the entire search range. At around 170 Hz (the most…
Modern gravitational-wave observatories require robust low-frequency active seismic isolation in order to keep the interferometer at its ideal operating conditions. Seismometers are used to measure both the motion of the ground and isolated platform. These devices are susceptible to contamination from ground tilt at frequencies below 0.1 Hz, particularly arising from wind-pressure acting on building walls. Consequently, during LIGO's first observing run both observatories suffered significant downtime when wind-speeds were above 7 m/s. We describe the use of ground rotation sensors at the LIGO…
Data streams of gravitational-wave detectors are polluted by transient noise features, or "glitches", of instrumental and environmental origin. In this work, we investigate the use of total-variation methods and learned dictionaries to mitigate the effect of those transients in the data. We focus on a specific type of transient, "blip" glitches, as this is the most common type of glitch present in the LIGO detectors and their waveforms are easy to identify. We randomly select 80 blip glitches scattered in the data from advanced LIGO's O1 run, as provided by the citizen-science project Gravity …
An important goal for LIGO (the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) and Virgo is to find periodic sources of gravitational waves. The LIGO and Virgo detectors are sensitive to a variety of noise of non-astrophysical origin, such as instrumental artifacts and environmental disturbances. These artifacts make it difficult to know when a signal is due to a gravitational wave or noise. A continuous wave search algorithm, Fscan, and the calculation of the coherence between the gravitational wave channels and auxiliary channels has been developed to identify the source of noise lines…
We study frequency dependent (FD) input-output schemes for signal-recycling interferometers, the baseline design of Advanced LIGO and the current configuration of GEO 600. Complementary to a recent proposal by Harms et al. to use FD input squeezing and ordinary homodyne detection, we explore a scheme which uses ordinary squeezed vacuum, but FD readout. Both schemes, which are sub-optimal among all possible input-output schemes, provide a global noise suppression by the power squeeze factor, while being realizable by using detuned Fabry-Perot cavities as input/output filters. At high frequencie…
Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo could observe the first lensed gravitational waves in the coming years, while the future Einstein Telescope could observe hundreds of lensed events. Ground-based gravitational-wave detectors can resolve arrival time differences of the order of the inverse of the observed frequencies. As LIGO/Virgo frequency band spans from a few $\rm Hz$ to a few $ \rm kHz$, the typical time resolution of current interferometers is of the order of milliseconds. When microlenses are embedded in galaxies or galaxy clusters, lensing can become more prominent and result in observab…
It is commonly assumed that ground-based gravitational wave (GW) instruments will not be sensitive to supermassive black holes (SMBHs) because the characteristic GW frequencies are far below the ~ 10 - 1000 Hz sensitivity bands of terrestrial detectors. Here, however, we explore the possibility of SMBH gravitational waves to leak to higher frequencies. In particular, if the high frequency spectral tail asymptotes to h(f) ~ f^{-alpha}, where alpha<=2, then the spectral amplitude is a constant or increasing function of the mass M at a fixed frequency f>>c^3/GM. This will happen if the time domai…
We present the results of the first joint search for gravitational-wave bursts by the LIGO and GEO600 detectors. We search for bursts with characteristic central frequencies in the band 768 to 2048 Hz in the data acquired between the 22nd of February and the 23rd of March, 2005 (fourth LSC Science Run - S4). We discuss the inclusion of the GEO600 data in the Waveburst-CorrPower pipeline that first searches for coincident excess power events without taking into account differences in the antenna responses or strain sensitivities of the various detectors. We compare the performance of this pipel…
In the next few years Advanced LIGO (aLIGO) may see gravitational waves (GWs) from thousands of black hole (BH) mergers. This marks the beginning of a new precision tool for physics. Here we show how to search for new physics beyond the standard model using this tool, in particular the QCD axion in the mass range ma ~ 10^-14 to 10^-10 eV. Axions (or any bosons) in this mass range cause rapidly rotating BHs to shed their spin into a large cloud of axions in atomic Bohr orbits around the BH, through the effect of superradiance (SR). This results in a gap in the mass vs. spin distribution of BHs …
Evidence for free precession has been observed in the radio signature of several pulsars. Freely precessing pulsars radiate gravitationally at frequencies near the rotation rate and twice the rotation rate, which for rotation frequencies greater than $\sim 10$ Hz is in the LIGO band. In older work, the gravitational wave spectrum of a precessing neutron star has been evaluated to first order in a small precession angle. Here we calculate the contributions to second order in the wobble angle, and we find that a new spectral line emerges. We show that for reasonable wobble angles, the second-ord…
We analyze the gravitational wave signatures of a network of metastable cosmic strings. We consider the case of cosmic string instability to breakage, with no primordial population of monopoles. This scenario is well motivated from GUT and string theoretic models with an inflationary phase below the GUT/string scale. The network initially evolves according to a scaling solution, but with breakage events resulting from confined monopoles (beads) being pair produced and accelerated apart. We find these ultra-relativistic beads to be a potent source of gravitational waves bursts, detectable by In…
About 0.4s after the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) detected a transient gravitational-wave (GW) signal GW150914, the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) also found a weak electromagnetic transient (GBM transient 150914). Time and location coincidences favor a possible association between GW150904 and GBM transient 150914. Under this possible association, we adopt Fermi's electromagnetic (EM) localization and derive constraints on possible violations of the Weak Equivalence Principle (WEP) from the observations of two events. Our calculations are based on four compa…
We present the results of an all-sky search for continuous gravitational wave signals with frequencies in the 200-600 Hz range and frequency derivative (spindown) from -1e-8 through 1.11e-9 Hz/s. Together with the results from [1], this search completes the all-sky survey for frequencies between 20 to 600 Hz on O1 data. It also demonstrates the scalability of our search on a parameter space 26 times larger than previously considered. The results presented here complement the LIGO O2 data results [2,3] with comparable when not better sensitivity and do not rely on data with irregularities in th…
We compute the spectrum of relic gravitons in a model of string cosmology. In the low- and in the high-frequency limits we reproduce known results. The full spectrum, however, also displays a series of oscillations which could give a characteristic signature at the planned LIGO/VIRGO detectors. For special values of the parameters of the model the signal reaches its maximum already at frequencies accessible to LIGO and VIRGO and it is close to the sensitivity of first generation experiments.
The first direct measurement of gravitational waves by the LIGO and Virgo collaborations has opened up new avenues to explore our Universe. This white paper outlines the challenges and gains expected in gravitational wave searches at frequencies above the LIGO/Virgo band, with a particular focus on Ultra High-Frequency Gravitational Waves (UHF-GWs), covering the MHz to GHz range. The absence of known astrophysical sources in this frequency range provides a unique opportunity to discover physics beyond the Standard Model operating both in the early and late Universe, and we highlight some of th…
We describe in detail gravitational wave bursts from Primordial Black Hole (PBH) hyperbolic encounters. The bursts are one-time events, with the bulk of the released energy happening during the closest approach, which can be emitted in frequencies that could be within the range of both LIGO (10-1000Hz) and LISA ($10^{-6}-1$ Hz). Furthermore, we correct the results for the power spectrum of hyperbolic encounters found in the literature and present new exact and approximate expressions for the peak frequency of the emission. Note that these GW bursts from hyperbolic encounters between PBH are co…
The relic gravitational wave (RGW) generated during the inflation depends on the initial condition via the amplitude, the spectral index $n_t$ and the running index $α_t$. CMB observations so far have only constrained the tensor-scalar ratio $r$, but not $n_t$ nor $α_t$. Complementary to this, the ground-based interferometric detectors working at $\sim 10^2$Hz are able to constrain the spectral indices that influence the spectrum sensitively at high frequencies. In this work we give a proper normalization of the analytical spectrum at the low frequency end, yielding a modification by a factor …
We show that gravitational radiation is produced quite efficiently in interactions of classical waves created by resonant decay of a coherently oscillating field. For simple models of chaotic inflation in which the inflaton interacts with another scalar field, we find that today's ratio of energy density in gravitational waves per octave to the critical density of the universe can be as large as 10^{-12} at the maximal wavelength of order 10^{5} cm. In the pure $λϕ^4$ model, the maximal today's wavelength of gravitational waves produced by this mechanism is of order 10^6 cm, close to the upper…
