Directional limits on persistent gravitational waves using LIGO S5 science data

• Published in: Physical review letters 2011-12, Vol.107 (27), p.271102-271102, Article 271102
• Main Authors: Abadie, J, Abbott, B P, Abbott, R, Abernathy, M, Accadia, T, Acernese, F, Adams, C, Adhikari, R, Ajith, P, Allen, B, Allen, G S, Ceron, E Amador, Amin, R S, Anderson, S B, Anderson, W G, Antonucci, F, Arain, M A, Araya, M C, Aronsson, M, Arun, K G, Aso, Y, Aston, S M, Astone, P, Atkinson, D, Aufmuth, P, Aulbert, C, Babak, S, Baker, P, Ballardin, G, Ballmer, S, Barker, D, Barnum, S, Barone, F, Barr, B, Barriga, P, Barsotti, L, Barsuglia, M, Barton, M A, Bartos, I, Bassiri, R, Bastarrika, M, Bauchrowitz, J, Bauer, Th S, Behnke, B, Beker, M G, Belletoile, A, Benacquista, M, Bertolini, A, Betzwieser, J, Beveridge, N, Beyersdorf, P T, Bigotta, S, Bilenko, I A, Billingsley, G, Birch, J, Birindelli, S, Biswas, R, Bitossi, M, Bizouard, M A, Black, E, Blackburn, J K, Blackburn, L, Blair, D, Bland, B, Blom, M, Boccara, C, Bock, O, Bodiya, T P, Bondarescu, R, Bondu, F, Bonelli, L, Bonnand, R, Bork, R, Born, M, Bose, S, Bosi, L, Bouhou, B, Boyle, M, Braccini, S, Bradaschia, C, Brady, P R, Braginsky, V B, Brau, J E, Breyer, J, Bridges, D O, Brillet, A, Brinkmann, M, Brisson, V, Britzger, M, Brooks, A F, Brown, D A, Budzyński, R, Bulik, T, Bulten, H J, Buonanno, A, Burguet-Castell, J, Burmeister, O, Buskulic, D, Buy, C, Byer, R L
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Astrophysics; Cosmology and Extra-Galactic Astrophysics; Galactic Astrophysics; Physics; Sciences of the Universe
• ISSN: 0031-9007; 1079-7114
• DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.107.271102

The gravitational-wave (GW) sky may include nearby pointlike sources as well as stochastic backgrounds. We perform two directional searches for persistent GWs using data from the LIGO S5 science run: one optimized for pointlike sources and one for arbitrary extended sources. Finding no evidence to support the detection of GWs, we present 90% confidence level (C.L.) upper-limit maps of GW strain power with typical values between 2-20×10(-50)  strain(2) Hz(-1) and 5-35×10(-49)  strain(2) Hz(-1) sr(-1) for pointlike and extended sources, respectively. The latter result is the first of its kind. We also set 90% C.L. limits on the narrow-band root-mean-square GW strain from interesting targets including Sco X-1, SN 1987A and the Galactic center as low as ≈7×10(-25) in the most sensitive frequency range near 160 Hz.