Constraints on Cosmic Strings from the LIGO-Virgo Gravitational-Wave Detectors
Author(s)
Barnum, Sam; Barsotti, Lisa; Bodiya, Timothy Paul; Donovan, Frederick J.; Essick, Reed Clasey; Evans, M.; Foley, S.; Fritschel, Peter K.; Gras, Slawek; Isogai, Tomoki; Katsavounidis, Erotokritos; Kissel, Jeffrey S.; Kwee, Patrick; Lee, J.; MacInnis, Myron E.; Mason, Kenneth R.; Matichard, Fabrice; Mavalvala, Nergis; Mittleman, Richard K.; Oelker, Eric Glenn; Shoemaker, David H.; Vaulin, Ruslan; Vitale, Salvatore; Waldman, S. J.; Weiss, Rainer; Wipf, C. C.; Zhang, Fan; Zucker, Michael E.; Aggarwal, Nancy,Ph. D.Massachusetts Institute of Technology.; ... Show more Show less
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Cosmic strings can give rise to a large variety of interesting astrophysical phenomena. Among them, powerful bursts of gravitational waves (GWs) produced by cusps are a promising observational signature. In this Letter we present a search for GWs from cosmic string cusps in data collected by the LIGO and Virgo gravitational wave detectors between 2005 and 2010, with over 625 days of live time. We find no evidence of GW signals from cosmic strings. From this result, we derive new constraints on cosmic string parameters, which complement and improve existing limits from previous searches for a stochastic background of GWs from cosmic microwave background measurements and pulsar timing data. In particular, if the size of loops is given by the gravitational backreaction scale, we place upper limits on the string tension Gμ below 10[superscript −8] in some regions of the cosmic string parameter space.
Date issued
2014-04Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics; MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space ResearchJournal
Physical Review Letters
Publisher
American Physical Society
Citation
Aasi, J., J. Abadie, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, T. Accadia, et al. “Constraints on Cosmic Strings from the LIGO-Virgo Gravitational-Wave Detectors.” Physical Review Letters 112, no. 13 (April 2014). © 2014 American Physical Society
Version: Final published version
ISSN
0031-9007
1079-7114