Search for gravitational waves associated with the August 2006 timing glitch of the Vela pulsar

Authors

J. Abadie, California Institute of Technology
B. P. Abbott, California Institute of Technology
R. Abbott, California Institute of Technology
R. Adhikari, California Institute of Technology
P. Ajith, California Institute of Technology
B. Allen, Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute)
G. Allen, Stanford University
E. Amador Ceron, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
R. S. Amin, Louisiana State University
S. B. Anderson, California Institute of Technology
W. G. Anderson, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
M. A. Arain, University of Florida
M. Araya, California Institute of Technology
Y. Aso, California Institute of Technology
S. Aston, University of Birmingham
P. Aufmuth, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität Hannover
C. Aulbert, Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute)
S. Babak, Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute)
P. Baker, Montana State University
S. Ballmer, California Institute of Technology
D. Barker, LIGO Hanford
B. Barr, University of Glasgow
P. Barriga, The University of Western Australia
L. Barsotti, LIGO, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
M. A. Barton, LIGO Hanford
I. Bartos, Columbia University
R. Bassiri, University of Glasgow
M. Bastarrika, University of Glasgow
B. Behnke, Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute)
M. Benacquista, University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College
M. F. Bennett, University of Melbourne
J. Betzwieser, California Institute of Technology
P. T. Beyersdorf, San Jose State University

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2-1-2011

Abstract

The physical mechanisms responsible for pulsar timing glitches are thought to excite quasinormal mode oscillations in their parent neutron star that couple to gravitational-wave emission. In August 2006, a timing glitch was observed in the radio emission of PSR B0833-45, the Vela pulsar. At the time of the glitch, the two colocated Hanford gravitational-wave detectors of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave observatory (LIGO) were operational and taking data as part of the fifth LIGO science run (S5). We present the first direct search for the gravitational-wave emission associated with oscillations of the fundamental quadrupole mode excited by a pulsar timing glitch. No gravitational-wave detection candidate was found. We place Bayesian 90% confidence upper limits of 6.3×10-21 to 1.4×10 -20 on the peak intrinsic strain amplitude of gravitational-wave ring-down signals, depending on which spherical harmonic mode is excited. The corresponding range of energy upper limits is 5.0×1044 to 1.3×1045erg. © 2011 American Physical Society.

Publication Source (Journal or Book title)

Physical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology

Recommended Citation

Abadie, J., Abbott, B., Abbott, R., Adhikari, R., Ajith, P., Allen, B., Allen, G., Amador Ceron, E., Amin, R., Anderson, S., Anderson, W., Arain, M., Araya, M., Aso, Y., Aston, S., Aufmuth, P., Aulbert, C., Babak, S., Baker, P., Ballmer, S., Barker, D., Barr, B., Barriga, P., Barsotti, L., Barton, M., Bartos, I., Bassiri, R., Bastarrika, M., Behnke, B., Benacquista, M., Bennett, M., Betzwieser, J., & Beyersdorf, P. (2011). Search for gravitational waves associated with the August 2006 timing glitch of the Vela pulsar. Physical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology, 83 (4) https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.83.042001