ABSTRACT A transient gravitational-wave signal, GW150914, was identified in the twin Advanced LIGO detectors on 2015 September 2015 at 09:50:45 UTC. To assess the implications of this discovery, the ...detectors remained in operation with unchanged configurations over a period of 39 days around the time of the signal. At the detection statistic threshold corresponding to that observed for GW150914, our search of the 16 days of simultaneous two-detector observational data is estimated to have a false-alarm rate (FAR) of , yielding a p-value for GW150914 of . Parameter estimation follow-up on this trigger identifies its source as a binary black hole (BBH) merger with component masses at redshift (median and 90% credible range). Here, we report on the constraints these observations place on the rate of BBH coalescences. Considering only GW150914, assuming that all BBHs in the universe have the same masses and spins as this event, imposing a search FAR threshold of 1 per 100 years, and assuming that the BBH merger rate is constant in the comoving frame, we infer a 90% credible range of merger rates between (comoving frame). Incorporating all search triggers that pass a much lower threshold while accounting for the uncertainty in the astrophysical origin of each trigger, we estimate a higher rate, ranging from depending on assumptions about the BBH mass distribution. All together, our various rate estimates fall in the conservative range .
Cosmic strings are topological defects which can be formed in grand unified theory scale phase transitions in the early universe. They are also predicted to form in the context of string theory. The ...main mechanism for a network of Nambu-Goto cosmic strings to lose energy is through the production of loops and the subsequent emission of gravitational waves, thus offering an experimental signature for the existence of cosmic strings. Here we report on the analysis conducted to specifically search for gravitational-wave bursts from cosmic string loops in the data of Advanced LIGO 2015-2016 observing run (O1). No evidence of such signals was found in the data, and as a result we set upper limits on the cosmic string parameters for three recent loop distribution models. In this paper, we initially derive constraints on the string tension Gμ and the intercommutation probability, using not only the burst analysis performed on the O1 data set but also results from the previously published LIGO stochastic O1 analysis, pulsar timing arrays, cosmic microwave background and big-bang nucleosynthesis experiments. We show that these data sets are complementary in that they probe gravitational waves produced by cosmic string loops during very different epochs. Finally, we show that the data sets exclude large parts of the parameter space of the three loop distribution models we consider.
When formed through dynamical interactions, stellar-mass binary black holes (BBHs) may retain eccentric orbits (e > 0.1 at 10 Hz) detectable by ground-based gravitational-wave detectors. Eccentricity ...can therefore be used to differentiate dynamically formed binaries from isolated BBH mergers. Current template-based gravitational-wave searches do not use waveform models associated with eccentric orbits, rendering the search less efficient for eccentric binary systems. Here we present the results of a search for BBH mergers that inspiral in eccentric orbits using data from the first and second observing runs (O1 and O2) of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo. We carried out the search with the coherent WaveBurst algorithm, which uses minimal assumptions on the signal morphology and does not rely on binary waveform templates. We show that it is sensitive to binary mergers with a detection range that is weakly dependent on eccentricity for all bound systems. Our search did not identify any new binary merger candidates. We interpret these results in light of eccentric binary formation models. We rule out formation channels with rates 100 Gpc−3 yr−1 for e > 0.1, assuming a black hole mass spectrum with a power-law index 2.
We present the result of searches for gravitational waves from 200 pulsars using data from the first observing run of the Advanced LIGO detectors. We find no significant evidence for a ...gravitational-wave signal from any of these pulsars, but we are able to set the most constraining upper limits yet on their gravitational-wave amplitudes and ellipticities. For eight of these pulsars, our upper limits give bounds that are improvements over the indirect spin-down limit values. For another 32, we are within a factor of 10 of the spin-down limit, and it is likely that some of these will be reachable in future runs of the advanced detector. Taken as a whole, these new results improve on previous limits by more than a factor of two.
On 14 September 2015, a gravitational wave signal from a coalescing black hole binary system was observed by the Advanced LIGO detectors. This paper describes the transient noise backgrounds used to ...determine the significance of the event (designated GW150914) and presents the results of investigations into potential correlated or uncorrelated sources of transient noise in the detectors around the time of the event. The detectors were operating nominally at the time of GW150914. We have ruled out environmental influences and non-Gaussian instrument noise at either LIGO detector as the cause of the observed gravitational wave signal.
In 2009-2010, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) operated together with international partners Virgo and GEO600 as a network to search for gravitational waves (GWs) of ...astrophysical origin. The sensitivity of these detectors was limited by a combination of noise sources inherent to the instrumental design and its environment, often localized in time or frequency, that couple into the GW readout. Here we review the performance of the LIGO instruments during this epoch, the work done to characterize the detectors and their data, and the effect that transient and continuous noise artefacts have on the sensitivity of LIGO to a variety of astrophysical sources.
ABSTRACT We report here the non-detection of gravitational waves from the merger of binary-neutron star systems and neutron star-black hole systems during the first observing run of the Advanced ...Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO). In particular, we searched for gravitational-wave signals from binary-neutron star systems with component masses and component dimensionless spins <0.05. We also searched for neutron star-black hole systems with the same neutron star parameters, black hole mass , and no restriction on the black hole spin magnitude. We assess the sensitivity of the two LIGO detectors to these systems and find that they could have detected the merger of binary-neutron star systems with component mass distributions of 1.35 0.13 M at a volume-weighted average distance of ∼70 Mpc, and for neutron star-black hole systems with neutron star masses of 1.4 M and black hole masses of at least 5 M , a volume-weighted average distance of at least ∼110 Mpc. From this we constrain with 90% confidence the merger rate to be less than 12,600 Gpc−3 yr−1 for binary-neutron star systems and less than 3600 Gpc−3 yr−1 for neutron star-black hole systems. We discuss the astrophysical implications of these results, which we find to be in conflict with only the most optimistic predictions. However, we find that if no detection of neutron star-binary mergers is made in the next two Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo observing runs we would place significant constraints on the merger rates. Finally, assuming a rate of Gpc−3 yr−1, short gamma-ray bursts beamed toward the Earth, and assuming that all short gamma-ray bursts have binary-neutron star (neutron star-black hole) progenitors, we can use our 90% confidence rate upper limits to constrain the beaming angle of the gamma-ray burst to be greater than ( ).
Thermal noise of the mirrors limits the sensitivity of interferometric gravitational-wave detectors in the frequency range between 50 and 300 Hz. According to the fluctuation--dissipation theorem, ...the thermal noise amplitude is proportional to the mechanical loss of the mirrors. Fused silica substrates loss angle widely ranges from 10-9 to 10-6, while for the coating it is around 10-4. Loss angle measurements in ultra low mechanical loss materials are normally affected by a large systematic error due to the excess losses introduced by the suspension system used to hold the samples. An innovative measurement system Gentle Nodal Suspension, where the disk-shaped sample is suspended in equilibrium on the top of a sphere, touching one of the nodal points of vibration, has been developed in INFN Florence Virgo laboratory. The advantages of this system are as follows: (i) the good reproducibility of loss angle measurements; (ii) one surface only (in any case uncoated) of the sample is touched; (iii) the contact surface is minimized because of the absence of applied forces. This suspension has been used to characterize annealing and coating deposition effects on the mechanical quality factor Q. An interesting comparison/analysis of these effects on mechanical, optical, chemical and surface properties using spectroscopic ellipsometry, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy has been carried out.
We present the results of a search for short-duration gravitational-wave transients in the data from the second observing run of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo. We search for gravitational-wave ...transients with a duration of milliseconds to approximately one second in the 32–4096 Hz frequency band with minimal assumptions about the signal properties, thus targeting a wide variety of sources. We also perform a matched-filter search for gravitational-wave transients from cosmic string cusps for which the waveform is well modeled. The unmodeled search detected gravitational waves from several binary black hole mergers which have been identified by previous analyses. No other significant events have been found by either the unmodeled search or the cosmic string search. We thus present the search sensitivities for a variety of signal waveforms and report upper limits on the source rate density as a function of the characteristic frequency of the signal. These upper limits are a factor of 3 lower than the first observing run, with a 50% detection probability for gravitational-wave emissions with energies of ~10−9 M⊙c2 at 153 Hz. For the search dedicated to cosmic string cusps we consider several loop distribution models, and present updated constraints from the same search done in the first observing run.
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