A search of the Orion spur for continuous gravitational waves using a "loosely coherent" algorithm on data from LIGO interferometers.

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Abstract:: We report results of a wideband search for periodic gravitational waves from isolated neutron stars within the Orion spur towards both the inner and outer regions of our galaxy. As gravitational waves interact very weakly with matter, the search is unimpeded by dust and concentrations of stars. One search region (A) is 6.87 degrees in diameter and centered on
20h10m54.71s+33d33m25.29s, and the
other (B) is 7.45d in diameter and centered on
8h35m20.61s-46d49m25.151s.
We explored the frequency range 50-1500 Hz, frequency derivative from 0 to -5e-9 Hz/s.
A multi-stage, loosely coherent follow-up search program allowed probing more deeply than
before in these two regions. Out of a first-stage set of 94,000 outliers, only 70 candidates
survived the fourth and final stage of the automated search, to be examined manually.
None of those 70 candidates proved to be consistent with an isolated gravitational wave emitter,
and 95% CL upper limits were placed on continuous-wave strain amplitudes.
Near 169 Hz our upper limit on worst-case linearly polarized strain amplitude h0 is 6.3e-25, while at the high end of our frequency range we achieve
a worst-case upper limit of
3.4e-24
for all polarizations and sky locations.

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LIGO Document P1500034-v23