Directional searches for persistent gravitational waves

ORAL

Abstract

A stochastic gravitational-wave background can arise from a wide variety of processes including inflation, cosmic strings, phase transitions in the early universe, pre-Big- Bang models and the superposition of astrophysical sources such as gamma-ray bursts. In addition to this background, the gravitational-wave sky may include a significant foreground from nearby point-like sources. In general, the angular distribution of gravitational-wave power is not strongly constrained. We thus propose a novel framework for directional analysis of persistent (non-bursting) and unmodeled gravitational waves with a network of interferometers, which allows for arbitrary angular distributions of gravitational-wave power.

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Authors

  • Eric Thrane

  • Stephan Ballmer

    • LIGO Caltech

  • Joseph D. Romano

    • The University of Texas at Brownsville

  • Sanjit Mitra

    • Jet Propulsion Laboratory and LIGO, Caltech; Observatoire de la Cote d'Azur

  • Dinpongkar Talukder

    • Washington State University

  • Sukanta Bose

    • Washington State University

  • Vuk Mandic

    • University of Minnesota