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Abstract

Searches for gravitational waves from compact-binary mergers, which to date
have reported $\sim100$ observations, have previously ignored binaries whose
components are both light ($<2M_\odot$) and have high dimensionless spin
($>0.05$). While previous searches targeted sources that are representative of
observed neutron star binaries in the galaxy, it is already known that neutron
stars can regularly be spun up to a dimensionless spin of $\sim0.4$, and in
principle reach up to $\sim0.7$ before breakup would occur. Furthermore, there
may be primordial black hole binaries or exotic formation mechanisms to produce
subsolar mass black holes. In these cases, it is possible for the binary
constituent to be spun up beyond that achievable by a neutron star. A single
detection of this type of source would reveal a novel formation channel for
compact-binaries. To determine if there is evidence for any such sources, we
use PyCBC to conduct the first search of LIGO and Virgo data for light compact
objects with high spin. Our analysis detects previously known observations
GW170817 and GW200115; however, we report no additional mergers. The most
significant candidate, not previously known, is consistent with the noise
distribution, and so we constrain the merger rate of spinning light binaries.