No Arabic abstract
The first observing run of Advanced LIGO spanned 4 months, from September 12, 2015 to January 19, 2016, during which gravitational waves were directly detected from two binary black hole systems, namely GW150914 and GW151226. Confident detection of gravitational waves requires an understanding of instrumental transients and artifacts that can reduce the sensitivity of a search. Studies of the quality of the detector data yield insights into the cause of instrumental artifacts and data quality vetoes specific to a search are produced to mitigate the effects of problematic data. In this paper, the systematic removal of noisy data from analysis time is shown to improve the sensitivity of searches for compact binary coalescences. The output of the PyCBC pipeline, which is a python-based code package used to search for gravitational wave signals from compact binary coalescences, is used as a metric for improvement. GW150914 was a loud enough signal that removing noisy data did not improve its significance. However, the removal of data with excess noise decreased the false alarm rate of GW151226 by more than two orders of magnitude, from 1 in 770 years to less than 1 in 186000 years.
We present a search for gravitational waves from double neutron star binaries inspirals in Advanced LIGOs first observing run. The search considers a narrow range of binary chirp masses motivated by the population of known double neutron star binaries in the nearby universe. This search differs from previously published results by providing the most sensitive published survey of neutron stars in Advanced LIGOs first observing run within this narrow mass range and including times when only one of the two LIGO detectors was in operation in the analysis. The search was sensitive to binary neutron star inspirals to an average distance of ~85 Mpc over 93.2 days. We do not identify any unambiguous gravitational wave signals in our sample of 103 sub-threshold candidates with false-alarm-rates of less than one per day. However, given the expected binary neutron star merger rate of R = 100 - 4000 Gpc^(-3) yr^(-1), we expect O(1) gravitational wave events within our candidate list. This suggests the possibility that one or more of these candidates is in fact a binary neutron star merger. Although the contamination fraction in our candidate list is ~99%, it might be possible to correlate these events with other messengers to identify a potential multi-messenger signal. We provide an online candidate list with the times and sky locations for all events in order to enable multi-messenger searches.
We employ gravitational-wave radiometry to map the gravitational waves stochastic background expected from a variety of contributing mechanisms and test the assumption of isotropy using data from Advanced LIGOs first observing run. We also search for persistent gravitational waves from point sources with only minimal assumptions over the 20 - 1726 Hz frequency band. Finding no evidence of gravitational waves from either point sources or a stochastic background, we set limits at 90% confidence. For broadband point sources, we report upper limits on the gravitational wave energy flux per unit frequency in the range $F_{alpha,Theta}(f) < (0.1 - 56) times 10^{-8}$ erg cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ Hz$^{-1}$ (f/25 Hz)$^{alpha-1}$ depending on the sky location $Theta$ and the spectral power index $alpha$. For extended sources, we report upper limits on the fractional gravitational wave energy density required to close the Universe of $Omega(f,Theta) < (0.39-7.6) times 10^{-8}$ sr$^{-1}$ (f/25 Hz)$^alpha$ depending on $Theta$ and $alpha$. Directed searches for narrowband gravitational waves from astrophysically interesting objects (Scorpius X-1, Supernova 1987 A, and the Galactic Center) yield median frequency-dependent limits on strain amplitude of $h_0 <$ (6.7, 5.5, and 7.0) $times 10^{-25}$ respectively, at the most sensitive detector frequencies between 130 - 175 Hz. This represents a mean improvement of a factor of 2 across the band compared to previous searches of this kind for these sky locations, considering the different quantities of strain constrained in each case.
After their successful first observing run (September 12, 2015 - January 12, 2016), the Advanced LIGO detectors were upgraded to increase their sensitivity for the second observing run (November 30, 2016 - August 26, 2017). The Advanced Virgo detector joined the second observing run on August 1, 2017. We discuss the updates that happened during this period in the GstLAL-based inspiral pipeline, which is used to detect gravitational waves from the coalescence of compact binaries both in low latency and an offline configuration. These updates include deployment of a zero-latency whitening filter to reduce the over-all latency of the pipeline by up to 32 seconds, incorporation of the Virgo data stream in the analysis, introduction of a single-detector search to analyze data from the periods when only one of the detectors is running, addition of new parameters to the likelihood ratio ranking statistic, increase in the parameter space of the search, and introduction of a template mass-dependent glitch-excision thresholding method.
The stochastic gravitational-wave background is a superposition of sources that are either too weak or too numerous to detect individually. In this study we present the results from a cross-correlation analysis on data from Advanced LIGOs second observing run (O2), which we combine with the results of the first observing run (O1). We do not find evidence for a stochastic background, so we place upper limits on the normalized energy density in gravitational waves at the 95% credible level of $Omega_{rm GW}<6.0times 10^{-8}$ for a frequency-independent (flat) background and $Omega_{rm GW}<4.8times 10^{-8}$ at 25 Hz for a background of compact binary coalescences. The upper limit improves over the O1 result by a factor of 2.8. Additionally, we place upper limits on the energy density in an isotropic background of scalar- and vector-polarized gravitational waves, and we discuss the implication of these results for models of compact binaries and cosmic string backgrounds. Finally, we present a conservative estimate of the correlated broadband noise due to the magnetic Schumann resonances in O2, based on magnetometer measurements at both the LIGO Hanford and LIGO Livingston observatories. We find that correlated noise is well below the O2 sensitivity.
A wide variety of astrophysical and cosmological sources are expected to contribute to a stochastic gravitational-wave background. Following the observations of GW150914 and GW151226, the rate and mass of coalescing binary black holes appear to be greater than many previous expectations. As a result, the stochastic background from unresolved compact binary coalescences is expected to be particularly loud. We perform a search for the isotropic stochastic gravitational-wave background using data from Advanced LIGOs first observing run. The data display no evidence of a stochastic gravitational-wave signal. We constrain the dimensionless energy density of gravitational waves to be $Omega_0<1.7times 10^{-7}$ with 95% confidence, assuming a flat energy density spectrum in the most sensitive part of the LIGO band (20-86 Hz). This is a factor of ~33 times more sensitive than previous measurements. We also constrain arbitrary power-law spectra. Finally, we investigate the implications of this search for the background of binary black holes using an astrophysical model for the background.