Journal article
An upper limit on the stochastic gravitational-wave background of cosmological origin
BP Abbott, R Abbott, F Acernese, R Adhikari, P Ajith, B Allen, G Allen, M Alshourbagy, RS Amin, SB Anderson, WG Anderson, F Antonucci, S Aoudia, MA Arain, M Araya, H Armandula, P Armor, KG Arun, Y Aso, S Aston Show all
Nature | NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP | Published : 2009
DOI: 10.1038/nature08278
Abstract
A stochastic background of gravitational waves is expected to arise from a superposition of a large number of unresolved gravitational-wave sources of astrophysical and cosmological origin. It should carry unique signatures from the earliest epochs in the evolution of the Universe, inaccessible to standard astrophysical observations. Direct measurements of the amplitude of this background are therefore of fundamental importance for understanding the evolution of the Universe when it was younger than one minute. Here we report limits on the amplitude of the stochastic gravitational-wave background using the data from a two-year science run of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observ..
View full abstractGrants
Awarded by National Science Foundation
Funding Acknowledgements
We acknowledge the support of the United States National Science Foundation for the construction and operation of the LIGO Laboratory, the Science and Technology Facilities 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, and the Italian Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare and the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique for the construction and operation of the Virgo detector. We also acknowledge the support of the research by these agencies and by the Australian Research Council, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research of India, the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare of Italy, the Spanish Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia, the Conselleria d'Economia Hisenda i Innovacio of the Govern de les Illes Balears, the Royal Society, the Scottish Funding Council, the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance, The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Carnegie Trust, the Leverhulme Trust, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Research Corporation, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.