Results from deep all-sky search on LIGO O3 data

The results of our all-sky search for continuous gravitational waves in public data from LIGO's third observing run (O3) have been published on the arXiv preprint server: Deep Einstein@Home all-sky search for continuous gravitational waves in LIGO O3 public data. The manuscript is currently in the peer-review process for publication in The Astrophysical Journal.

Our publication describes the Einstein@Home all-sky survey for continuous gravitational waves with frequencies between 20 Hz and 800 Hz, using the latest LIGO data. To date, this is the most sensitive all-sky search in this range.

The search did not reveal any gravitational-wave signal. Based on this we draw conclusions about the population of neutron stars in our Galactic neighborhood. For example, within 100 parsecs (~330 light-years) around Earth there are no neutron stars rotating faster than 12,000 rpm with equatorial mountains larger than half a millimeter; otherwise we would have very likely detected their continuous gravitational waves.

The LIGO team adds fake continuous gravitational-wave signals to the data, for validation purposes. The signal parameters are known. In its search range our search accurately recovers the fake signals. This gives us further confidence in the sensitivity of our search.

At the moment we are running additional searches on public LIGO data. As we continue to mine these data for continuous waves, our heart-felt thanks go to all of you who make this work possible by donating cycles from your computers!

If you would like to know more, just reply to this news item in our discussion forum.

M. Alessandra Papa

https://www.aei.mpg.de/continuouswaves

Comments

Am La
Am La
Joined: 10 Nov 20
Posts: 1
Credit: 812339
RAC: 544

Great work. Keep on searching

Great work. Keep on searching !!

Rickjb
Rickjb
Joined: 26 Mar 22
Posts: 2
Credit: 529369445
RAC: 1251794

... and for our next trick,

... and for our next trick, what are we having planned for us regarding the data that are expected to flow from the imminent start of O4 ?

(Article dated 3 May 2023: https://www.virgo-gw.eu/news/gravitational-wave-detectors-prepare-for-next-observing-run/ )

Planned start: 24 May 2023.

Benjamin Knispel
Benjamin Knispel
Joined: 1 Jun 06
Posts: 148
Credit: 4981579
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Einstein@Home searches for

Einstein@Home searches for continuous gravitational-wave signals, and long data sets are needed for the analysis – covering ideally several consecutive months. Therefore, searches can only begin once an observing run (or a subset of it, such as O3a and O3b, the halves of O3) is done, and calibrated data have been published.

The current schedule for O4 (as of today) mentions “18 calendar months of observing for O4” and “[maybe] one or two month-scale gaps for maintenance”. O4 will last until the end of 2025. Whether O4 (and therefore the publication of data) will be split into two halves (like O3) is unclear from public sources.

 

Einstein@Home Project

Benjamin Knispel
Benjamin Knispel
Joined: 1 Jun 06
Posts: 148
Credit: 4981579
RAC: 0

The paper has now been

The paper has now been published (open access) in “The Astrophysical Journal”, you will find it at https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/acdad4.

As a reminder, all scientific publications from our project are linked on our Publications and Reports webpage.

 

Einstein@Home Project