Optimally setting up directed searches for continuous gravitational waves in Advanced LIGO O1 data

Understand

In this paper we design a search for continuous gravitational waves from three supernova remnants: Vela Jr., Cassiopeia A (Cas A) and G347.3.

• These systems might harbor rapidly rotating neutron stars emitting quasi-periodic gravitational radiation detectable by the advanced LIGO detectors.
• Our search is designed to use the volunteer computing project Einstein@Home for a few months and assumes the sensitivity and duty cycles of the advanced LIGO detectors during their first science run.
• For all three supernova remnants, the sky-positions of their central compact objects are well known but the frequency and spin-down rates of the neutron stars are unknown which makes the searches computationally limited.