Search for gravitational-wave bursts in the first year of the fifth LIGO science run

TL;DR

This paper reports an all-sky search for gravitational-wave bursts using LIGO data from 2005-2006, setting the most stringent upper limits on event rates without detecting any signals.

Contribution

First comprehensive all-sky search for GW bursts in the fifth LIGO science run, establishing new upper limits on event rates and sensitivity.

Findings

No gravitational-wave bursts detected.

Set upper limit of 3.6 events per year at 90% confidence.

Achieved the most stringent exclusion curves to date.

Abstract

We present the results obtained from an all-sky search for gravitational-wave (GW) bursts in the 64-2000 Hz frequency range in data collected by the LIGO detectors during the first year (November 2005 - November 2006) of their fifth science run. The total analyzed livetime was 268.6 days. Multiple hierarchical data analysis methods were invoked in this search. The overall sensitivity expressed in terms of the root-sum-square (rss) strain amplitude h_{rss} for gravitational-wave bursts with various morphologies was in the range of 6 times 10^{-22} Hz^{-1/2} to a few times 10^{-21} Hz^{-1/2}. No GW signals were observed and a frequentist upper limit of 3.6 events per year on the rate of strong GW bursts was placed at the 90% confidence level. As in our previous searches, we also combined this rate limit with the detection efficiency for selected waveform morphologies to obtain event rate versus strength exclusion curves. In sensitivity, these exclusion curves are the most stringent to date.