Searches for Continuous Gravitational Waves from 15 Supernova Remnants and Fomalhaut b with Advanced LIGO

Paper published by The LIGO Scientific Collaboration and the Virgo Collaboration at The Astrophysical JournalVolume 875Number 2

Searches for Continuous Gravitational Waves from 15 Supernova Remnants and Fomalhaut b with Advanced LIGO

We describe directed searches for continuous gravitational waves (GWs) from 16 well-localized candidate neutron stars, assuming none of the stars has a binary companion. The searches were directed toward 15 supernova remnants and Fomalhaut b, a directly imaged extrasolar planet candidate that has been suggested to be a nearby old neutron star. Each search covered a broad band of frequencies and first and second time derivatives. After coherently integrating spans of data from the first Advanced LIGO observing run of 3.5–53.7 days per search, applying data-based vetoes, and discounting known instrumental artifacts, we found no astrophysical signals. We set upper limits on intrinsic GW strain as strict as 1 × 10−25, fiducial neutron star ellipticity as strict as 2 × 10−9, and fiducial r-mode amplitude as strict as 3 × 10−8.

Image. Upper limits on fiducial ellipticity (left panel) and r-mode amplitude (right panel) for a representative sample of searches.

Paper link available below at citation information


Citation:

The LIGO Scientific Collaboration and the Virgo Collaboration
Searches for Continuous Gravitational Waves from 15 Supernova Remnants and Fomalhaut b with Advanced LIGO
The Astrophysical JournalVolume 875Number 2
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ab113b
23 April 2019