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Abstract

Rapidly rotating neutron stars are promising sources of continuous
gravitational wave radiation for the LIGO and Virgo interferometers. The
majority of neutron stars in our galaxy have not been identified with
electromagnetic observations. All-sky searches for isolated neutron stars offer
the potential to detect gravitational waves from these unidentified sources.
The parameter space of these blind all-sky searches, which also cover a large
range of frequencies and frequency derivatives, presents a significant
computational challenge. Different methods have been designed to perform these
searches within acceptable computational limits. Here we describe the first
benchmark in a project to compare the search methods currently available for
the detection of unknown isolated neutron stars. We employ a mock data
challenge to compare the ability of each search method to recover signals
simulated assuming a standard signal model. We find similar performance among
the short duration search methods, while the long duration search method
achieves up to a factor of two higher sensitivity. We find the absence of
second derivative frequency in the search parameter space does not degrade
search sensivity for signals with physically plausible second derivative
frequencies. We also report on the parameter estimation accuracy of each search
method, and the stability of the sensitivity in frequency, frequency derivative
and in the presence of detector noise.