Observational upper limits on the gravitational wave production of core collapse supernovae

TL;DR

This paper uses LIGO's observational data to set upper limits on the gravitational wave energy emitted by core collapse supernovae, providing constraints that inform future detector sensitivities.

Contribution

It introduces a method to constrain average GW emission from ccSNe using stochastic background limits and star formation history assumptions.

Findings

Upper limit on GW energy emission: < (0.49-1.98) solar masses c^2

Constraints depend weakly on the assumed source spectrum

Future GW detectors will improve these constraints

Abstract

The upper limit on the energy density of a stochastic gravitational wave (GW) background obtained from the two-year science run (S5) of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) is used to constrain the average GW production of core collapse supernovae (ccSNe). We assume that the ccSNe rate tracks the star formation history of the universe and show that the stochastic background energy density depends only weakly on the assumed average source spectrum. Using the ccSNe rate for $z\leq10$, we scale the generic source spectrum to obtain an observation-based upper limit on the average GW emission. We show that the mean energy emitted in GWs can be constrained within $< (0.49-1.98){1mm} M_{\odot} c^{2}$ depending on the average source spectrum. While these results are higher than the total available gravitational energy in a core collapse event, second and third generation GW detectors will enable tighter constraints to be set on the GW emission from such systems.