LIGO O2; gravitational waves from Scorpius X-1

DOI

We present the results of a search in LIGO O2 public data for continuous gravitational waves from the neutron star in the low-mass X-ray binary Scorpius X-1. We search for signals with ~constant frequency in the range 40-180Hz. Thanks to the efficiency of our search pipeline we can use a long coherence time and achieve unprecedented sensitivity, significantly improving on existing results. This is the first search that has been able to probe gravitational wave amplitudes that could balance the accretion torque at the neutron star radius. Our search excludes emission at this level between 67.5 and 131.5Hz, for an inclination angle 44{deg}{+/-}6{deg} derived from radio observations, and assuming that the spin axis is perpendicular to the orbital plane. If the torque arm is ~26km-a conservative estimate of the Alfven radius-our results are more constraining than the indirect limit across the band. This allows us to exclude certain mass-radius combinations and to place upper limits on the strength of the star's magnetic field with a different probe than ever used before. We also correct a mistake that appears in the literature in the equation that gives the gravitational wave amplitude at the torque balance and we re-interpret the associated latest LIGO/Virgo results in light of this.

Identifier
DOI http://doi.org/10.26093/cds/vizier.19069014
Source https://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/lp/custom/CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/906/L14
Related Identifier https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/ApJ/906/L14
Related Identifier http://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/906/L14
Metadata Access http://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/pmh/pubreg.xml?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_b2find&identifier=ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/906/L14
Provenance
Creator Zhang Y.; Papa M.A.; Krishnan B.; Watts A.L.
Publisher CDS
Publication Year 2022
Rights https://cds.unistra.fr/vizier-org/licences_vizier.html
OpenAccess true
Contact CDS support team <cds-question(at)unistra.fr>
Representation
Resource Type Dataset; AstroObjects
Discipline Astrophysical Processes; Astrophysics and Astronomy; Cosmology; High Energy Astrophysics; Natural Sciences; Observational Astronomy; Physics; Stellar Astronomy