The First Search for Gravitational Waves from Inspiraling Compact Binaries using TAMA300 data

TL;DR

This paper reports the first search for gravitational waves from inspiraling compact binaries using TAMA300 data, setting upper limits on event rates and estimating detection distances.

Contribution

It introduces a two-step hierarchical matched filtering strategy for gravitational wave detection from compact binaries.

Findings

Upper limit of 0.59/hour on inspiral event rate at 90% confidence.

Estimated detection distance of 6.2 kpc for 1.4 solar mass binaries.

No gravitational wave signals detected in 6 hours of data.

Abstract

We analyzed 6 hours of data from the TAMA300 detector by matched filtering, searching for gravitational waves from inspiraling compact binaries. We incorporated a two-step hierarchical search strategy in matched filtering. We obtained an upper limit of 0.59/hour (C.L.=90%) on the event rate of inspirals of compact binaries with mass between 0.3M_solar and 10M_solar and with signal-to-noise ratio greater than 7.2. The distance of 1.4M_solar (0.5M_solar) binaries which produce the signal-to-noise ratio 7.2 was estimated to be 6.2kpc (2.9kpc) when the position of the source on the sky and the inclination angle of the binaries were optimal.