Journal article
First LIGO search for gravitational wave bursts from cosmic (super)strings
BP Abbott, R Abbott, R Adhikari, P Ajith, B Allen, G Allen, RS Amin, SB Anderson, WG Anderson, MA Arain, M Araya, H Armandula, P Armor, Y Aso, S Aston, P Aufmuth, C Aulbert, S Babak, P Baker, S Ballmer Show all
Physical Review D Particles Fields Gravitation and Cosmology | AMER PHYSICAL SOC | Published : 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 Gμ/c2≈10-6) can be ruled out at 90% confidence for reconnection probabilities p≤10-3 if ..
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Awarded by National Science Foundation
Funding Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Irit Maor and Alexander Vilenkin for useful discussions. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the United States National Science Foundation for the construction and operation of the LIGO Laboratory and the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council of the United Kingdom, the Max-Planck-Society, and the State of Niedersachsen/Germany for support of the construction and operation of the GEO600 detector. The authors also gratefully acknowledge the support of the research by these agencies and by the Australian Research Council, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research of India, the Department of Science and Technology of India, the Spanish Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia, The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the Leverhulme Trust, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Research Corporation, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. LIGO DCC No. LIGO-P0900026.