Search for Periodic Gravitational Wave Sources with the Explorer Detector

TL;DR

This paper presents a method for detecting periodic gravitational wave signals, applied to one year of data from the Explorer detector, focusing on the Galactic Center, but with potential for broader sky searches.

Contribution

Developed a new procedure for searching periodic gravitational wave signals, demonstrated on Explorer data, capable of extending to all-sky searches with frequency corrections.

Findings

No signals above the amplitude threshold were detected.

The analysis covered a specific frequency range and sky location.

The method can be generalized for all-sky searches with spin-down and Doppler corrections.

Abstract

We have developped a procedure for the search of periodic signals in the data of gravitational wave detectors. We report here the analysis of one year of data from the resonant detector Explorer, searching for pulsars located in the Galactic Center (GC). No signals with amplitude greater than $\bar{h}= 2.9~10^{-24}$, in the range 921.32-921.38 Hz, were observed using data collected over a time period of 95.7 days, for a source located at $\alpha=17.70 \pm 0.01$ hours and $\delta=-29.00 \pm 0.05$ degrees. Our procedure can be extended for any assumed position in the sky and for a more general all-sky search, even with a frequency correction at the source due to the spin-down and Doppler effects.