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Results Of The Deepest All-Sky Survey For Continuous Gravitational Waves On Ligo S6 Data Running On The Einstein@Home Volunteer Distributed Computing Project, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, C. Adams, T. Adams, Marc Favata, Shaon Ghosh Nov 2016

Results Of The Deepest All-Sky Survey For Continuous Gravitational Waves On Ligo S6 Data Running On The Einstein@Home Volunteer Distributed Computing Project, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, C. Adams, T. Adams, Marc Favata, Shaon Ghosh

Department of Physics and Astronomy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

We report results of a deep all-sky search for periodic gravitational waves from isolated neutron stars in data from the S6 LIGO science run. The search was possible thanks to the computing power provided by the volunteers of the Einstein@Home distributed computing project. We find no significant signal candidate and set the most stringent upper limits to date on the amplitude of gravitational wave signals from the target population. At the frequency of best strain sensitivity, between 170.5 and 171 Hz we set a 90% confidence upper limit of 5.5×10-25, while at the high end of our frequency range, around …


A First Targeted Search For Gravitational-Wave Bursts From Core-Collapse Supernovae In Data Of First-Generation Laser Interferometer Detectors, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, C. Adams, Marc Favata, Shaon Ghosh, Rodica Martin Nov 2016

A First Targeted Search For Gravitational-Wave Bursts From Core-Collapse Supernovae In Data Of First-Generation Laser Interferometer Detectors, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, C. Adams, Marc Favata, Shaon Ghosh, Rodica Martin

Department of Physics and Astronomy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

We present results from a search for gravitational-wave bursts coincident with two core-collapse supernovae observed optically in 2007 and 2011. We employ data from the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO), the Virgo gravitational-wave observatory, and the GEO 600 gravitational-wave observatory. The targeted core-collapse supernovae were selected on the basis of (1) proximity (within approximately 15 Mpc), (2) tightness of observational constraints on the time of core collapse that defines the gravitational-wave search window, and (3) coincident operation of at least two interferometers at the time of core collapse. We find no plausible gravitational-wave candidates. We present the probability of detecting …


Small Optic Suspensions For Advanced Ligo Input Optics And Other Precision Optical Experiments, G. Ciani, M. A. Arain, S. M. Aston, D. Feldbaum, P. Fulda, J. Gleason, M. Heintze, Rodica Martin, C. L. Mueller, D. M. Nanda Kumar, A. Pele, D. H. Reitze, P. Sainathan, D. B. Tanner, L. F. Williams, G. Mueller Nov 2016

Small Optic Suspensions For Advanced Ligo Input Optics And Other Precision Optical Experiments, G. Ciani, M. A. Arain, S. M. Aston, D. Feldbaum, P. Fulda, J. Gleason, M. Heintze, Rodica Martin, C. L. Mueller, D. M. Nanda Kumar, A. Pele, D. H. Reitze, P. Sainathan, D. B. Tanner, L. F. Williams, G. Mueller

Department of Physics and Astronomy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

We report on the design and performance of small optic suspensions developed to suppress seismic motion of out-of-cavity optics in the input optics subsystem of the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory. These compact single stage suspensions provide isolation in all six degrees of freedom of the optic, local sensing and actuation in three of them, and passive damping for the other three.


Directly Comparing Gw150914 With Numerical Solutions Of Einstein's Equations For Binary Black Hole Coalescence, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, C. Adams, T. Adams, Marc Favata, Shaon Ghosh Sep 2016

Directly Comparing Gw150914 With Numerical Solutions Of Einstein's Equations For Binary Black Hole Coalescence, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, C. Adams, T. Adams, Marc Favata, Shaon Ghosh

Department of Physics and Astronomy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

We compare GW150914 directly to simulations of coalescing binary black holes in full general relativity, including several performed specifically to reproduce this event. Our calculations go beyond existing semianalytic models, because for all simulations - including sources with two independent, precessing spins - we perform comparisons which account for all the spin-weighted quadrupolar modes, and separately which account for all the quadrupolar and octopolar modes. Consistent with the posterior distributions reported by Abbott et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 241102 (2016)] (at the 90% credible level), we find the data are compatible with a wide range of nonprecessing and precessing …


Comprehensive All-Sky Search For Periodic Gravitational Waves In The Sixth Science Run Ligo Data, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, C. Adams, T. Adams, Marc Favata, Shaon Ghosh Aug 2016

Comprehensive All-Sky Search For Periodic Gravitational Waves In The Sixth Science Run Ligo Data, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, C. Adams, T. Adams, Marc Favata, Shaon Ghosh

Department of Physics and Astronomy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

We report on a comprehensive all-sky search for periodic gravitational waves in the frequency band 100-1500 Hz and with a frequency time derivative in the range of [-1.18,+1.00]×10-8 Hz/s. Such a signal could be produced by a nearby spinning and slightly nonaxisymmetric isolated neutron star in our galaxy. This search uses the data from the initial LIGO sixth science run and covers a larger parameter space with respect to any past search. A Loosely Coherent detection pipeline was applied to follow up weak outliers in both Gaussian (95% recovery rate) and non-Gaussian (75% recovery rate) bands. No gravitational wave signals …


Localization And Broadband Follow-Up Of The Gravitational-Wave Transient Gw150914, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, C. Adams, Marc Favata, Shaon Ghosh, Rodica Martin Jul 2016

Localization And Broadband Follow-Up Of The Gravitational-Wave Transient Gw150914, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, C. Adams, Marc Favata, Shaon Ghosh, Rodica Martin

Department of Physics and Astronomy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

A gravitational-wave (GW) transient was identified in data recorded by the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) detectors on 2015 September 14. The event, initially designated G184098 and later given the name GW150914, is described in detail elsewhere. By prior arrangement, preliminary estimates of the time, significance, and sky location of the event were shared with 63 teams of observers covering radio, optical, near-infrared, X-ray, and gamma-ray wavelengths with ground- and space-based facilities. In this Letter we describe the low-latency analysis of the GW data and present the sky localization of the first observed compact binary merger. We summarize the …


Supplement: “Localization And Broadband Follow-Up Of The Gravitational-Wave Transient Gw150914”, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, C. Adams, Marc Favata, Shaon Ghosh, Rodica Martin Jul 2016

Supplement: “Localization And Broadband Follow-Up Of The Gravitational-Wave Transient Gw150914”, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, C. Adams, Marc Favata, Shaon Ghosh, Rodica Martin

Department of Physics and Astronomy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This Supplement provides supporting material for Abbott et al. (2016a). We briefly summarize past electromagnetic (EM) follow-up efforts as well as the organization and policy of the current EM follow-up program. We compare the four probability sky maps produced for the gravitational-wave transient GW150914, and provide additional details of the EM follow-up observations that were performed in the different bands.


Gravitational-Wave Phasing For Low-Eccentricity Inspiralling Compact Binaries To 3pn Order, Blake Moore, Marc Favata, K. G. Arun, Chandra Kant Mishra Jun 2016

Gravitational-Wave Phasing For Low-Eccentricity Inspiralling Compact Binaries To 3pn Order, Blake Moore, Marc Favata, K. G. Arun, Chandra Kant Mishra

Department of Physics and Astronomy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Although gravitational radiation causes inspiralling compact binaries to circularize, a variety of astrophysical scenarios suggest that binaries might have small but non-negligible orbital eccentricities when they enter the low-frequency bands of ground- and space-based gravitational-wave detectors. If not accounted for, even a small orbital eccentricity can cause a potentially significant systematic error in the mass parameters of an inspiralling binary [M. Favata, Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 101101 (2014)]. Gravitational-wave search templates typically rely on the quasicircular approximation, which provides relatively simple expressions for the gravitational-wave phase to 3.5 post-Newtonian (PN) order. Damour, Gopakumar, Iyer, and others have developed an elegant …


High-Energy Neutrino Follow-Up Search Of Gravitational Wave Event Gw150914 With Antares And Icecube, S. Adrián-Martínez, A. Albert, M. André, M. Anghinolfi, G. Anton, M. Ardid, J. J. Aubert, Marc Favata, Shaon Ghosh, Rodica Martin Jun 2016

High-Energy Neutrino Follow-Up Search Of Gravitational Wave Event Gw150914 With Antares And Icecube, S. Adrián-Martínez, A. Albert, M. André, M. Anghinolfi, G. Anton, M. Ardid, J. J. Aubert, Marc Favata, Shaon Ghosh, Rodica Martin

Department of Physics and Astronomy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

We present the high-energy-neutrino follow-up observations of the first gravitational wave transient GW150914 observed by the Advanced LIGO detectors on September 14, 2015. We search for coincident neutrino candidates within the data recorded by the IceCube and Antares neutrino detectors. A possible joint detection could be used in targeted electromagnetic follow-up observations, given the significantly better angular resolution of neutrino events compared to gravitational waves. We find no neutrino candidates in both temporal and spatial coincidence with the gravitational wave event. Within ±500 s of the gravitational wave event, the number of neutrino candidates detected by IceCube and Antares were …


Search For Transient Gravitational Waves In Coincidence With Short-Duration Radio Transients During 2007-2013, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, C. Adams, Marc Favata, Shaon Ghosh, Rodica Martin Jun 2016

Search For Transient Gravitational Waves In Coincidence With Short-Duration Radio Transients During 2007-2013, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, C. Adams, Marc Favata, Shaon Ghosh, Rodica Martin

Department of Physics and Astronomy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

We present an archival search for transient gravitational-wave bursts in coincidence with 27 single-pulse triggers from Green Bank Telescope pulsar surveys, using the LIGO, Virgo, and GEO interferometer network. We also discuss a check for gravitational-wave signals in coincidence with Parkes fast radio bursts using similar methods. Data analyzed in these searches were collected between 2007 and 2013. Possible sources of emission of both short-duration radio signals and transient gravitational-wave emission include starquakes on neutron stars, binary coalescence of neutron stars, and cosmic string cusps. While no evidence for gravitational-wave emission in coincidence with these radio transients was found, the …


Gw151226: Observation Of Gravitational Waves From A 22-Solar-Mass Binary Black Hole Coalescence, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, C. Adams, T. Adams, Marc Favata, Shaon Ghosh Jun 2016

Gw151226: Observation Of Gravitational Waves From A 22-Solar-Mass Binary Black Hole Coalescence, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, C. Adams, T. Adams, Marc Favata, Shaon Ghosh

Department of Physics and Astronomy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

We report the observation of a gravitational-wave signal produced by the coalescence of two stellar-mass black holes. The signal, GW151226, was observed by the twin detectors of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) on December 26, 2015 at 03:38:53 UTC. The signal was initially identified within 70 s by an online matched-filter search targeting binary coalescences. Subsequent off-line analyses recovered GW151226 with a network signal-to-noise ratio of 13 and a significance greater than 5σ. The signal persisted in the LIGO frequency band for approximately 1 s, increasing in frequency and amplitude over about 55 cycles from 35 to 450 Hz, …


Gw150914: First Results From The Search For Binary Black Hole Coalescence With Advanced Ligo, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, C. Adams, Marc Favata, Shaon Ghosh, Rodica Martin Jun 2016

Gw150914: First Results From The Search For Binary Black Hole Coalescence With Advanced Ligo, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, C. Adams, Marc Favata, Shaon Ghosh, Rodica Martin

Department of Physics and Astronomy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

On September 14, 2015, at 0950:45 UTC the two detectors of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) simultaneously observed the binary black hole merger GW150914. We report the results of a matched-filter search using relativistic models of compact-object binaries that recovered GW150914 as the most significant event during the coincident observations between the two LIGO detectors from September 12 to October 20, 2015 GW150914 was observed with a matched-filter signal-to-noise ratio of 24 and a false alarm rate estimated to be less than 1 event per 203000 years, equivalent to a significance greater than 5.1 σ.


Observing Gravitational-Wave Transient Gw150914 With Minimal Assumptions, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, C. Adams, Marc Favata, Shaon Ghosh, Rodica Martin Jun 2016

Observing Gravitational-Wave Transient Gw150914 With Minimal Assumptions, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, C. Adams, Marc Favata, Shaon Ghosh, Rodica Martin

Department of Physics and Astronomy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The gravitational-wave signal GW150914 was first identified on September 14, 2015, by searches for short-duration gravitational-wave transients. These searches identify time-correlated transients in multiple detectors with minimal assumptions about the signal morphology, allowing them to be sensitive to gravitational waves emitted by a wide range of sources including binary black hole mergers. Over the observational period from September 12 to October 20, 2015, these transient searches were sensitive to binary black hole mergers similar to GW150914 to an average distance of ∼600 Mpc. In this paper, we describe the analyses that first detected GW150914 as well as the parameter estimation …


Characterization Of Transient Noise In Advanced Ligo Relevant To Gravitational Wave Signal Gw150914, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, M. Adamo, Marc Favata, Shaon Ghosh, Rodica Martin Jun 2016

Characterization Of Transient Noise In Advanced Ligo Relevant To Gravitational Wave Signal Gw150914, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, M. Adamo, Marc Favata, Shaon Ghosh, Rodica Martin

Department of Physics and Astronomy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

On 14 September 2015, a gravitational wave signal from a coalescing black hole binary system was observed by the Advanced LIGO detectors. This paper describes the transient noise backgrounds used to determine the significance of the event (designated GW150914) and presents the results of investigations into potential correlated or uncorrelated sources of transient noise in the detectors around the time of the event. The detectors were operating nominally at the time of GW150914. We have ruled out environmental influences and non-Gaussian instrument noise at either LIGO detector as the cause of the observed gravitational wave signal.


Sensitivity Of The Advanced Ligo Detectors At The Beginning Of Gravitational Wave Astronomy, D. V. Martynov, E. D. Hall, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, C. Adams, R. X. Adhikari, Rodica Martin Jun 2016

Sensitivity Of The Advanced Ligo Detectors At The Beginning Of Gravitational Wave Astronomy, D. V. Martynov, E. D. Hall, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, C. Adams, R. X. Adhikari, Rodica Martin

Department of Physics and Astronomy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) consists of two widely separated 4 km laser interferometers designed to detect gravitational waves from distant astrophysical sources in the frequency range from 10 Hz to 10 kHz. The first observation run of the Advanced LIGO detectors started in September 2015 and ended in January 2016. A strain sensitivity of better than 10-23/Hz was achieved around 100 Hz. Understanding both the fundamental and the technical noise sources was critical for increasing the astrophysical strain sensitivity. The average distance at which coalescing binary black hole systems with individual masses of 30 M could be …


Tests Of General Relativity With Gw150914, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, C. Adams, Marc Favata, Shaon Ghosh, Rodica Martin May 2016

Tests Of General Relativity With Gw150914, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, C. Adams, Marc Favata, Shaon Ghosh, Rodica Martin

Department of Physics and Astronomy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The LIGO detection of GW150914 provides an unprecedented opportunity to study the two-body motion of a compact-object binary in the large-velocity, highly nonlinear regime, and to witness the final merger of the binary and the excitation of uniquely relativistic modes of the gravitational field. We carry out several investigations to determine whether GW150914 is consistent with a binary black-hole merger in general relativity. We find that the final remnant's mass and spin, as determined from the low-frequency (inspiral) and high-frequency (postinspiral) phases of the signal, are mutually consistent with the binary black-hole solution in general relativity. Furthermore, the data following …


Gw150914: Implications For The Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background From Binary Black Holes, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, C. Adams, Marc Favata, Shaon Ghosh, Rodica Martin Mar 2016

Gw150914: Implications For The Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background From Binary Black Holes, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, C. Adams, Marc Favata, Shaon Ghosh, Rodica Martin

Department of Physics and Astronomy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The LIGO detection of the gravitational wave transient GW150914, from the inspiral and merger of two black holes with masses 30M, suggests a population of binary black holes with relatively high mass. This observation implies that the stochastic gravitational-wave background from binary black holes, created from the incoherent superposition of all the merging binaries in the Universe, could be higher than previously expected. Using the properties of GW150914, we estimate the energy density of such a background from binary black holes. In the most sensitive part of the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo band for stochastic backgrounds (near 25 Hz), …


Gw150914: The Advanced Ligo Detectors In The Era Of First Discoveries, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, C. Adams, Marc Favata, Shaon Ghosh, Rodica Martin Mar 2016

Gw150914: The Advanced Ligo Detectors In The Era Of First Discoveries, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, C. Adams, Marc Favata, Shaon Ghosh, Rodica Martin

Department of Physics and Astronomy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Following a major upgrade, the two advanced detectors of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) held their first observation run between September 2015 and January 2016. With a strain sensitivity of 10-23/Hz at 100 Hz, the product of observable volume and measurement time exceeded that of all previous runs within the first 16 days of coincident observation. On September 14, 2015, the Advanced LIGO detectors observed a transient gravitational-wave signal determined to be the coalescence of two black holes [B. P. Abbott et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 061102 (2016)], launching the era of gravitational-wave astronomy. The event, GW150914, was …


First Low Frequency All-Sky Search For Continuous Gravitational Wave Signals, J. Aasi, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, Marc Favata, Shaon Ghosh, Rodica Martin Feb 2016

First Low Frequency All-Sky Search For Continuous Gravitational Wave Signals, J. Aasi, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, Marc Favata, Shaon Ghosh, Rodica Martin

Department of Physics and Astronomy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

In this paper we present the results of the first low frequency all-sky search of continuous gravitational wave signals conducted on Virgo VSR2 and VSR4 data. The search covered the full sky, a frequency range between 20 and 128 Hz with a range of spin-down between -1.0×10-10 and +1.5×10-11 Hz/s, and was based on a hierarchical approach. The starting point was a set of short fast Fourier transforms, of length 8192 s, built from the calibrated strain data. Aggressive data cleaning, in both the time and frequency domains, has been done in order to remove, as much as possible, the …


Astrophysical Implications Of The Binary Black Hole Merger Gw150914, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, C. Adams, Marc Favata, Shaon Ghosh, Rodica Martin Feb 2016

Astrophysical Implications Of The Binary Black Hole Merger Gw150914, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, C. Adams, Marc Favata, Shaon Ghosh, Rodica Martin

Department of Physics and Astronomy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The discovery of the gravitational-wave (GW) source GW150914 with the Advanced LIGO detectors provides the first observational evidence for the existence of binary black hole (BH) systems that inspiral and merge within the age of the universe. Such BH mergers have been predicted in two main types of formation models, involving isolated binaries in galactic fields or dynamical interactions in young and old dense stellar environments. The measured masses robustly demonstrate that relatively "heavy" BHs (≳25 M⊙) can form in nature. This discovery implies relatively weak massive-star winds and thus the formation of GW150914 in an environment with a metallicity …


Search Of The Orion Spur For Continuous Gravitational Waves Using A Loosely Coherent Algorithm On Data From Ligo Interferometers, J. Aasi, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, Marc Favata, Shaon Ghosh, Rodica Martin Feb 2016

Search Of The Orion Spur For Continuous Gravitational Waves Using A Loosely Coherent Algorithm On Data From Ligo Interferometers, J. Aasi, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, Marc Favata, Shaon Ghosh, Rodica Martin

Department of Physics and Astronomy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

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 disk (A) is 6.87° in diameter and centered on 20h10m54.71s+33°33′25.29′′, and the other (B) is 7.45° in diameter and centered on 8h35m20.61s-46°49′25.151′′. We explored the frequency range of 50-1500 Hz and frequency derivative from 0 to -5×10-9 Hz/s. A multistage, loosely coherent search program allowed probing more deeply than before in …


All-Sky Search For Long-Duration Gravitational Wave Transients With Initial Ligo, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, C. Adams, Marc Favata, Shaon Ghosh, Rodica Martin Feb 2016

All-Sky Search For Long-Duration Gravitational Wave Transients With Initial Ligo, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, C. Adams, Marc Favata, Shaon Ghosh, Rodica Martin

Department of Physics and Astronomy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

We present the results of a search for long-duration gravitational wave transients in two sets of data collected by the LIGO Hanford and LIGO Livingston detectors between November 5, 2005 and September 30, 2007, and July 7, 2009 and October 20, 2010, with a total observational time of 283.0 days and 132.9 days, respectively. The search targets gravitational wave transients of duration 10-500 s in a frequency band of 40-1000 Hz, with minimal assumptions about the signal waveform, polarization, source direction, or time of occurrence. All candidate triggers were consistent with the expected background; as a result we set 90% …


Observation Of Gravitational Waves From A Binary Black Hole Merger, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, C. Adams, Marc Favata, Shaon Ghosh, Rodica Martin Feb 2016

Observation Of Gravitational Waves From A Binary Black Hole Merger, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, C. Adams, Marc Favata, Shaon Ghosh, Rodica Martin

Department of Physics and Astronomy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

On September 14, 2015 at 09:50:45 UTC the two detectors of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory simultaneously observed a transient gravitational-wave signal. The signal sweeps upwards in frequency from 35 to 250 Hz with a peak gravitational-wave strain of 1.0×10-21. It matches the waveform predicted by general relativity for the inspiral and merger of a pair of black holes and the ringdown of the resulting single black hole. The signal was observed with a matched-filter signal-to-noise ratio of 24 and a false alarm rate estimated to be less than 1 event per 203 000 years, equivalent to a significance greater …


Binary Black Hole Mergers In The First Advanced Ligo Observing Run, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, C. Adams, T. Adams, Marc Favata, Shaon Ghosh Jan 2016

Binary Black Hole Mergers In The First Advanced Ligo Observing Run, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, C. Adams, T. Adams, Marc Favata, Shaon Ghosh

Department of Physics and Astronomy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The first observational run of the Advanced LIGO detectors, from September 12, 2015 to January 19, 2016, saw the first detections of gravitational waves from binary black hole mergers. In this paper, we present full results from a search for binary black hole merger signals with total masses up to 100M· and detailed implications from our observations of these systems. Our search, based on general-relativistic models of gravitational-wave signals from binary black hole systems, unambiguously identified two signals, GW150914 and GW151226, with a significance of greater than 5s over the observing period. It also identified a third possible signal, LVT151012, …


Improved Analysis Of Gw150914 Using A Fully Spin-Precessing Waveform Model, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, C. Adams, T. Adams, Marc Favata, Shaon Ghosh Jan 2016

Improved Analysis Of Gw150914 Using A Fully Spin-Precessing Waveform Model, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, C. Adams, T. Adams, Marc Favata, Shaon Ghosh

Department of Physics and Astronomy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This paper presents updated estimates of source parameters for GW150914, a binary black-hole coalescence event detected by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) in 2015 [Abbott et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 061102 (2016).]. Abbott et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 241102 (2016).] presented parameter estimation of the source using a 13-dimensional, phenomenological precessing-spin model (precessing IMRPhenom) and an 11-dimensional nonprecessing effective-one body (EOB) model calibrated to numerical-relativity simulations, which forces spin alignment (nonprecessing EOBNR). Here, we present new results that include a 15-dimensional precessingspin waveform model (precessing EOBNR) developed within the EOB formalism. We find good agreement with the …


The Advanced Ligo Input Optics, Chris L. Mueller, Muzammil A. Arain, Giacomo Ciani, Ryan T. Derosa, Anamaria Effler, David Feldbaum, Valery V. Frolov, Paul Fulda, Joseph Gleason, Matthew Heintze, Keita Kawabe, Eleanor J. King, Keiko Kokeyama, William Z. Korth, Rodica Martin, Adam Mullavey, Jan Peold, Volker Quetschke, David H. Reitze, David B. Tanner, Cheryl Vorvick, Luke F. Williams, Guido Mueller Jan 2016

The Advanced Ligo Input Optics, Chris L. Mueller, Muzammil A. Arain, Giacomo Ciani, Ryan T. Derosa, Anamaria Effler, David Feldbaum, Valery V. Frolov, Paul Fulda, Joseph Gleason, Matthew Heintze, Keita Kawabe, Eleanor J. King, Keiko Kokeyama, William Z. Korth, Rodica Martin, Adam Mullavey, Jan Peold, Volker Quetschke, David H. Reitze, David B. Tanner, Cheryl Vorvick, Luke F. Williams, Guido Mueller

Department of Physics and Astronomy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The advanced LIGO gravitational wave detectors are nearing their design sensitivity and should begin taking meaningful astrophysical data in the fall of 2015. These resonant optical interferometers will have unprecedented sensitivity to the strains caused by passing gravitational waves. The input optics play a significant part in allowing these devices to reach such sensitivities. Residing between the pre-stabilized laser and the main interferometer, the input optics subsystem is tasked with preparing the laser beam for interferometry at the sub-attometer level while operating at continuous wave input power levels ranging from 100 mW to 150 W. These extreme operating conditions required …