Searches for Gravitational Waves from Known Pulsars at Two Harmonics in the Second and Third LIGO-Virgo Observing Runs

TL;DR

This paper reports a targeted search for continuous gravitational waves from 236 pulsars using LIGO and Virgo data, setting new upper limits on gravitational wave strain and pulsar properties, with some limits surpassing spin-down limits for the first time.

Contribution

First search to set upper limits on gravitational waves from multiple pulsars at dual harmonics, including limits surpassing spin-down limits for some pulsars.

Findings

No gravitational wave detection was made.

New upper limits on strain amplitudes and pulsar quadrupole moments were established.

For some pulsars, limits exceeded spin-down limits for the first time.

Abstract

We present a targeted search for continuous gravitational waves (GWs) from 236 pulsars using data from the third observing run of LIGO and Virgo (O3) combined with data from the second observing run (O2). Searches were for emission from the $l=m=2$ mass quadrupole mode with a frequency at only twice the pulsar rotation frequency (single harmonic) and the $l=2, m=1,2$ modes with a frequency of both once and twice the rotation frequency (dual harmonic). No evidence of GWs was found so we present 95\% credible upper limits on the strain amplitudes $h_0$ for the single harmonic search along with limits on the pulsars' mass quadrupole moments $Q_{22}$ and ellipticities $\varepsilon$. Of the pulsars studied, 23 have strain amplitudes that are lower than the limits calculated from their electromagnetically measured spin-down rates. These pulsars include the millisecond pulsars J0437\textminus4715 and J0711\textminus6830 which have spin-down ratios of 0.87 and 0.57 respectively. For nine pulsars, their spin-down limits have been surpassed for the first time. For the Crab and Vela pulsars our limits are factors of $\sim 100$ and $\sim 20$ more constraining than their spin-down limits, respectively. For the dual harmonic searches, new limits are placed on the strain amplitudes $C_{21}$ and $C_{22}$. For 23 pulsars we also present limits on the emission amplitude assuming dipole radiation as predicted by Brans-Dicke theory.