Gravitational waves from known pulsars: Results from the initial detector era

Journal Article · Sun Apr 20 00:00:00 EDT 2014 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/785/2/119· OSTI ID:22357106

Aasi, J.; Abadie, J.; Abbott, B. P.; Abbott, R.; Abernathy, M. R.; Adhikari, R. X.; Ajith, P. ^[1]; Abbott, T. ^[2]; Accadia, T. ^[3]; Acernese, F. ^[4]; Adams, C. ^[5]; Adams, T. ^[6]; Affeldt, C.; Allen, B. ^[7]; Agathos, M. ^[8]; Aggarwal, N. ^[9]; Aguiar, O. D. ^[10]; Allocca, A. ^[11]; Ceron, E. Amador ^[12]; Amariutei, D. ^[13] ; others, and

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1. LIGO - California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)
2. Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803 (United States)
3. Laboratoire d'Annecy-le-Vieux de Physique des Particules (LAPP), Université de Savoie, CNRS/IN2P3, F-74941 Annecy-le-Vieux (France)
4. INFN, Sezione di Napoli, Complesso Universitario di Monte S. Angelo, I-80126 Napoli (Italy)
5. LIGO - Livingston Observatory, Livingston, LA 70754 (United States)
6. Cardiff University, Cardiff, CF24 3AA (United Kingdom)
7. Albert-Einstein-Institut, Max-Planck-Institut für Gravitationsphysik, D-30167 Hannover (Germany)
8. Nikhef, Science Park, 1098 XG Amsterdam (Netherlands)
9. LIGO - Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139 (United States)
10. Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, 12227-010 - São José dos Campos, SP (Brazil)
11. INFN, Sezione di Pisa, I-56127 Pisa (Italy)
12. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI 53201 (United States)
13. University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611 (United States)

We present the results of searches for gravitational waves from a large selection of pulsars using data from the most recent science runs (S6, VSR2 and VSR4) of the initial generation of interferometric gravitational wave detectors LIGO (Laser Interferometric Gravitational-wave Observatory) and Virgo. We do not see evidence for gravitational wave emission from any of the targeted sources but produce upper limits on the emission amplitude. We highlight the results from seven young pulsars with large spin-down luminosities. We reach within a factor of five of the canonical spin-down limit for all seven of these, whilst for the Crab and Vela pulsars we further surpass their spin-down limits. We present new or updated limits for 172 other pulsars (including both young and millisecond pulsars). Now that the detectors are undergoing major upgrades, and, for completeness, we bring together all of the most up-to-date results from all pulsars searched for during the operations of the first-generation LIGO, Virgo and GEO600 detectors. This gives a total of 195 pulsars including the most recent results described in this paper.

• OSTI ID: 22357106
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 785, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
AMPLITUDES
EMISSION
GRAVITATIONAL WAVE DETECTORS
GRAVITATIONAL WAVES
LUMINOSITY
PULSARS
SPIN