All-sky search for continuous gravitational waves from isolated neutron stars using Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo O3 data

TL;DR

This paper reports an all-sky search for continuous gravitational waves from isolated neutron stars using Advanced LIGO and Virgo O3 data, setting upper limits on wave amplitude and constraining primordial black hole populations.

Contribution

It applies four analysis methods to search a broad frequency range, providing the most stringent upper limits to date and exploring primordial black hole scenarios.

Findings

No significant gravitational wave signals detected.

Best upper limit on strain amplitude is 1.1×10⁻²⁵ at 111.5 Hz.

Constraints placed on primordial black hole populations.

Abstract

We present results of an all-sky search for continuous gravitational waves which can be produced by spinning neutron stars with an asymmetry around their rotation axis, using data from the third observing run of the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. Four different analysis methods are used to search in a gravitational-wave frequency band from 10 to 2048 Hz and a first frequency derivative from $-10^{-8}$ to $10^{-9}$ Hz/s. No statistically-significant periodic gravitational-wave signal is observed by any of the four searches. As a result, upper limits on the gravitational-wave strain amplitude $h_0$ are calculated. The best upper limits are obtained in the frequency range of 100 to 200 Hz and they are ${\sim}1.1\times10^{-25}$ at 95\% confidence-level. The minimum upper limit of $1.10\times10^{-25}$ is achieved at a frequency 111.5 Hz. We also place constraints on the rates and abundances of nearby planetary- and asteroid-mass primordial black holes that could give rise to continuous gravitational-wave signals.