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Astrophysics, High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena, astro-ph.HE,General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology, gr-qc
Abstract:
We present the results of a search for gravitational waves associated with
223 gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) detected by the InterPlanetary Network (IPN) in
2005-2010 during LIGO's fifth and sixth science runs and Virgo's first, second
and third science runs. The IPN satellites provide accurate times of the bursts
and sky localizations that vary significantly from degree scale to hundreds of
square degrees. We search for both a well-modeled binary coalescence signal,
the favored progenitor model for short GRBs, and for generic, unmodeled
gravitational wave bursts. Both searches use the event time and sky
localization to improve the gravitational-wave search sensitivity as compared
to corresponding all-time, all-sky searches. We find no evidence of a
gravitational-wave signal associated with any of the IPN GRBs in the sample,
nor do we find evidence for a population of weak gravitational-wave signals
associated with the GRBs. For all IPN-detected GRBs, for which a sufficient
duration of quality gravitational-wave data is available, we place lower bounds
on the distance to the source in accordance with an optimistic assumption of
gravitational-wave emission energy of $10^{-2}M_{\odot}c^2$ at 150 Hz, and find
a median of 13 Mpc. For the 27 short-hard GRBs we place 90% confidence
exclusion distances to two source models: a binary neutron star coalescence,
with a median distance of 12Mpc, or the coalescence of a neutron star and black
hole, with a median distance of 22 Mpc. Finally, we combine this search with
previously published results to provide a population statement for GRB searches
in first-generation LIGO and Virgo gravitational-wave detectors, and a
resulting examination of prospects for the advanced gravitational-wave
detectors.