All-sky, narrowband, gravitational-wave radiometry with folded data

TL;DR

This paper introduces an efficient all-sky, narrowband gravitational-wave radiometry method using folded data to detect persistent signals from unknown neutron stars and other sources, significantly reducing computational costs.

Contribution

It presents a novel approach to perform all-sky, narrowband gravitational-wave searches with folded data, enabling efficient detection of unknown neutron stars and other persistent signals.

Findings

Demonstrates the feasibility of using folded data for all-sky searches

Provides a computationally efficient method for detecting unknown neutron stars

Enhances sensitivity to narrowband gravitational-wave signals

Abstract

Gravitational-wave radiometry is a powerful tool by which weak signals with unknown signal morphologies are recovered through a process of cross correlation. Radiometry has been used, e.g., to search for persistent signals from known neutron stars such as Scorpius X-1. In this paper, we demonstrate how a more ambitious search--for persistent signals from unknown neutron stars--can be efficiently carried out using folded data, in which an entire ~year-long observing run is represented as a single sidereal day. The all-sky, narrowband radiometer search described here will provide a computationally tractable means to uncover gravitational-wave signals from unknown, nearby neutron stars in binary systems, which can have modulation depths of ~0.1-2 Hz. It will simultaneously provide a sensitive search algorithm for other persistent, narrowband signals from unexpected sources.