Search for Gravitational Waves from Scorpius X-1 in LIGO O3 Data with Corrected Orbital Ephemeris

Abstract

Improved observational constraints on the orbital parameters of the low-mass X-ray binary Scorpius X-1 were recently published in Killestein et al. In the process, errors were corrected in previous orbital ephemerides, which have been used in searches for continuous gravitational waves from Sco X-1 using data from the Advanced LIGO detectors. We present the results of a reanalysis of LIGO detector data from the third observing run of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo using a model-based cross-correlation search. The corrected region of parameter space, which was not covered by previous searches, was about 1/3 as large as the region searched in the original O3 analysis, reducing the required computing time. We have confirmed that no detectable signal is present over a range of gravitational-wave frequencies from 25 to 1600 Hz, analogous to the null result of Abbott et al. Our search sensitivity is comparable to that of Abbott et al., who set upper limits corresponding, between 100 and 200 Hz, to an amplitude h _0 of about 10 ^−25 when marginalized isotropically over the unknown inclination angle of the neutron star’s rotation axis, or less than 4 × 10 ^−26 assuming the optimal orientation.

Keywords

• Gravitational wave astronomy
• Gravitational waves
• Low-mass x-ray binary stars
• Neutron stars