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Article
Searches for Gravitational Waves from Known Pulsars at Two Harmonics in 2015–2017 LIGO Data
Faculty Publications
  • Tiffany Summerscales, Andrews University
  • LIGO Scientific Collaboration and the Virgo Collaboration, LIGO Scientific Collaboration and the Virgo Collaboration
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
6-26-2019
Abstract

We present a search for gravitational waves from 222 pulsars with rotation frequencies 10 Hz. We use advanced LIGO data from its first and second observing runs spanning 2015–2017, which provides the highest-sensitivity gravitational-wave data so far obtained. In this search we target emission from both the l = m = 2 mass quadrupole mode, with a frequency at twice that of the pulsar's rotation, and the l = 2, m = 1 mode, with a frequency at the pulsar rotation frequency. The search finds no evidence for gravitational-wave emission from any pulsar at either frequency. For the l = m = 2 mode search, we provide updated upper limits on the gravitational-wave amplitude, mass quadrupole moment, and fiducial ellipticity for 167 pulsars, and the first such limits for a further 55. For 20 young pulsars these results give limits that are below those inferred from the pulsars' spin-down. For the Crab and Vela pulsars our results constrain gravitational-wave emission to account for less than 0.017% and 0.18% of the spin-down luminosity, respectively. For the recycled millisecond pulsar J0711−6830 our limits are only a factor of 1.3 above the spin-down limit, assuming the canonical value of 1038 kg m2 for the star's moment of inertia, and imply a gravitational-wave-derived upper limit on the star's ellipticity of 1.2 × 10−8. We also place new limits on the emission amplitude at the rotation frequency of the pulsars.

Journal Title
The Astrophysical Journal
DOI
https://doi.org/http://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ab20cb
First Department
Physics
Acknowledgements
Retrieved 8/20/2020 from https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ab20cb
Citation Information
Tiffany Summerscales and LIGO Scientific Collaboration and the Virgo Collaboration. "Searches for Gravitational Waves from Known Pulsars at Two Harmonics in 2015–2017 LIGO Data" Vol. 879 Iss. 1 (2019)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/tiffany_summerscales/108/