Targeted Search for Gravitational Waves from Highly Spinning Light Compact Binaries

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Wang, Yi-Fan, Nitz, Alexander H.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
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author Wang, Yi-Fan
Nitz, Alexander H.
author_facet Wang, Yi-Fan
Nitz, Alexander H.
contents Searches for gravitational waves from compact-binary mergers, which to date have reported $\sim100$ observations, have previously ignored binaries whose components are both consistent with the mass of neutron stars $(1 M_\odot$ to $ 2 M_\odot)$ and have high dimensionless spin $>0.05$. While previous searches targeted sources that are representative of observed neutron star binaries in the galaxy, it is already known that neutron stars can regularly be spun up to a dimensionless spin of $\sim0.4$, and in principle reach up to $\sim0.7$ before breakup would occur. Furthermore, there may be primordial black hole binaries or exotic formation mechanisms to produce light black holes. In these cases, it is possible for the binary constituent to be spun up beyond that achievable by a neutron star. A single detection of this type of source would reveal a novel formation channel for compact-binaries. To determine if there is evidence for any such sources, we use PyCBC to conduct a targeted search of LIGO and Virgo data for light compact objects with high spin. Our analysis detects previously known observations GW170817 and GW200115; however, we report no additional mergers. The most significant candidate, not previously known, is consistent with the noise distribution, and so we constrain the merger rate of spinning light binaries.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2308_16173
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Targeted Search for Gravitational Waves from Highly Spinning Light Compact Binaries
Wang, Yi-Fan
Nitz, Alexander H.
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Searches for gravitational waves from compact-binary mergers, which to date have reported $\sim100$ observations, have previously ignored binaries whose components are both consistent with the mass of neutron stars $(1 M_\odot$ to $ 2 M_\odot)$ and have high dimensionless spin $>0.05$. While previous searches targeted sources that are representative of observed neutron star binaries in the galaxy, it is already known that neutron stars can regularly be spun up to a dimensionless spin of $\sim0.4$, and in principle reach up to $\sim0.7$ before breakup would occur. Furthermore, there may be primordial black hole binaries or exotic formation mechanisms to produce light black holes. In these cases, it is possible for the binary constituent to be spun up beyond that achievable by a neutron star. A single detection of this type of source would reveal a novel formation channel for compact-binaries. To determine if there is evidence for any such sources, we use PyCBC to conduct a targeted search of LIGO and Virgo data for light compact objects with high spin. Our analysis detects previously known observations GW170817 and GW200115; however, we report no additional mergers. The most significant candidate, not previously known, is consistent with the noise distribution, and so we constrain the merger rate of spinning light binaries.
title Targeted Search for Gravitational Waves from Highly Spinning Light Compact Binaries
topic High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2308.16173