Observation results by the TAMA300 detector on gravitational wave bursts from stellar-core collapses

TL;DR

This paper describes data analysis methods applied to TAMA300 gravitational wave data to detect burst signals from stellar-core collapses, achieving significant fake event reduction and setting an upper limit on event rates.

Contribution

The paper introduces new analysis schemes for burst gravitational wave detection without precise waveform templates, demonstrating their effectiveness on real detector data.

Findings

Fake events reduced by a factor of about 1000

Set an upper limit of 2.2x10^3 events/sec for Galactic burst events

Established a new analysis framework for interferometric gravitational wave data

Abstract

We present data-analysis schemes and results of observations with the TAMA300 gravitational-wave detector, targeting burst signals from stellar-core collapse events. In analyses for burst gravitational waves, the detection and fake-reduction schemes are different from well-investigated ones for a chirp-wave analysis, because precise waveform templates are not available. We used an excess-power filter for the extraction of gravitational-wave candidates, and developed two methods for the reduction of fake events caused by non-stationary noises of the detector. These analysis schemes were applied to real data from the TAMA300 interferometric gravitational wave detector. As a result, fake events were reduced by a factor of about 1000 in the best cases. The resultant event candidates were interpreted from an astronomical viewpoint. We set an upper limit of 2.2x10^3 events/sec on the burst gravitational-wave event rate in our Galaxy with a confidence level of 90%. This work sets a milestone and prospects on the search for burst gravitational waves, by establishing an analysis scheme for the observation data from an interferometric gravitational wave detector.