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Astrophysics, Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, astro-ph.IM,General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology, gr-qc
Abstract:
Continuous-wave (CW) gravitational-waves (GWs) require
computationally-intensive methods. Low signal-to-noise ratio signals need
templated searches with long coherent integration times and thus fine
parameter-space resolution. Longer integration increases sensitivity. Low-Mass
X-ray Binaries (LMXBs) such as Scorpius X-1 (Sco X-1) may emit accretion-driven
CWs at strains reachable by current ground-based observatories. Binary orbital
parameters induce phase modulation. This paper describes how resampling
corrects binary and detector motion, yielding source-frame times series used
for cross-correlation. Compared to the previous, detector-frame, templated
cross-correlation method, used for Sco X-1 on data from the first Advanced LIGO
observing run (O1), resampling is about 20x faster in the costliest,
most-sensitive frequency bands. Speed-up factors depend on integration time and
search set-up. The speed could be reinvested into longer integration with a
forecast sensitivity gain, 20 to 125 Hz median, of approximately 51%, or from
20 to 250 Hz, 11%, given the same per-band cost and set-up. This paper's timing
model enables future set-up optimization. Resampling scales well with longer
integration, and at 10x unoptimized cost could reach respectively 2.83x and
2.75x median sensitivities, limited by spin-wandering. Then an O1 search could
yield a marginalized-polarization upper limit reaching torque-balance at 100
Hz. Frequencies from 40 to 140 Hz might be probed in equal observing time with
2x improved detectors.
