Constraints on Cosmic Strings from the LIGO-Virgo Gravitational-Wave Detectors

Aasi, J. and Abadie, J. and Abbott, B. P. and Abbott, R. and Abbott, T. and Abernathy, M. R. and Accadia, T. and Acernese, F. and Adams, C. and Adams, T. and Adhikari, R. X. and Affeldt, C. and Agathos, M. and Aggarwal, N. and Aguiar, O. D. and Ajith, P. and Allen, B. and Allocca, A. and Ceron, E. Amador and Amariutei, D. and Anderson, R. A. and Anderson, S. B. and Anderson, W. G. and Arai, K. and Araya, M. C. and Arceneaux, C. and Areeda, J. and Ast, S. and Aston, S. M. and Astone, P. and Debreczeni, Gergely and Endrőczi, Gábor and Frei, Zsolt and Gergely, Árpád László and Gondán, László and Nagy-Egri, Máté Ferenc and Rácz, István and Raffai, Péter and Szeifert, Gábor and Vasúth, Mátyás Zsolt (2014) Constraints on Cosmic Strings from the LIGO-Virgo Gravitational-Wave Detectors. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS, 112 (13). ISSN 0031-9007

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Abstract

Cosmic strings can give rise to a large variety of interesting astrophysical phenomena. Amongthem, powerful bursts of gravitational waves (GWs) produced by cusps are a promising observationalsignature. In this Letter we present a search for GWs from cosmic string cusps in data collectedby the LIGO and Virgo gravitational wave detectors between 2005 and 2010, with over 625 days oflive time. We find no evidence of GW signals from cosmic strings. From this result, we derive newconstraints on cosmic string parameters, which complement and improve existing limits from previ-ous searches for a stochastic background of GWs from cosmic microwave background measurementsand pulsar timing data. In particular, if the size of loops is given by the gravitational backreactionscale, we place upper limits on the string tension Gμ below 10−8 in some regions of the cosmic stringparameter space.

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