First LIGO search for gravitational wave bursts from cosmic (super)strings

Authors

B. P. Abbott
R. AbbottFollow
Matthew Benacquista, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Teviet Creighton, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Mario C. Diaz, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
R. Grosso
K. Hayama
H. Lei
Soumya Mohanty, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Soma Mukherjee, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Malik Rakhmanov, The University of Texas Rio Grande ValleyFollow
Joseph D. Romano, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Robert Stone, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-23-2009

Abstract

We report on a matched-filter search for gravitational wave bursts from cosmic string cusps using LIGO data from the fourth science run (S4) which took place in February and March 2005. No gravitational waves were detected in 14.9 days of data from times when all three LIGO detectors were operating. We interpret the result in terms of a frequentist upper limit on the rate of gravitational wave bursts and use the limits on the rate to constrain the parameter space (string tension, reconnection probability, and loop sizes) of cosmic string models. Many grand unified theory-scale models (with string tension ��⁢��/��2≈10−6) can be ruled out at 90% confidence for reconnection probabilities ��≤10−3 if loop sizes are set by gravitational back reaction.

Comments

©2009 American Physical Society. Original published version available at https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.80.062002

Recommended Citation

Abbott, B. P., et al. “First LIGO Search for Gravitational Wave Bursts from Cosmic (Super)Strings.” Physical Review D, vol. 80, no. 6, American Physical Society, Sept. 2009, p. 062002, https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.80.062002

Publication Title

Physical Review D

DOI

10.1103/PhysRevD.80.062002