Scientific Results – CNR – Istituto Nazionale di Ottica

An upper limit on the stochastic gravitational-wave background of cosmological origin

Year: 2009

Authors: Abbott B. P., Abbott R., Acernese F., Adhikari R., Ajith P., Allen B., Allen G., Alshourbagy M., Amin R. S., Anderson S. B., Anderson W. G., Antonucci F., Aoudia S., Arain M. A., Araya M., Armandula H., Armor P., Arun K. G., Aso Y., Aston S., Astone P., Aufmuth P., Aulbert C., Babak S., Baker P., Ballardin G., Ballmer S., Barker C., Barker D., Barone F., Barr B., Barriga P., Barsotti L., Barsuglia M., Barton M. A., Bartos I., Bassiri R., Bastarrika M., Bauer Th. S., Behnke B., Beker M., Benacquista M., Betzwieser J., Beyersdorf P. T., Bigotta S.,. Bilenko I. A, Billingsley G., Birindelli S., Biswas R., Bizouard M. A., Black E., Blackburn J. K., Blackburn L., Blair D., Bland B., Boccara C., Bodiya T. P., Bogue L., Bondu F., Bonelli L., Bork R., Boschi V., Bose S., Bosi L., Braccini S., Bradaschia C., Brady P. R., Braginsky V. B., van den Brand J. F. J., Brau J. E., Bridges D. O., Brillet A., Brinkmann M., Brisson V., Van Den Broeck C., Brooks A. F., Brown D. A., Brummit A., Brunet G., Bullington A., Bulten H.J., Buonanno A., Burmeister O., Buskulic D., Byer R. L., Cadonati L., Cagnoli G., Calloni E., Camp J. B., Campagna E., Cannizzo J., Cannon K. C., Canuel B., Cao J., Carbognani F., Cardenas L., Caride S., Castaldi G., Caudill S., Cavagli� M., Cavalier F., Cavalieri R., Cella G., Cepeda C., Cesarini E., Chalermsongsak T., Chalkley E., Charlton P., Chassande-Mottin E., Chatterji S., Chelkowski S., Chen Y., Christensen N., Chung C. T. Y., Clark D., Clark J., Clayton J. H., Cleva F., Coccia E., Cokelaer T., Colacino C. N., Colas J., Colla A., Colombini M., Conte R., Cook D., Corbitt T. R. C., Corda C., Cornish N., Corsi A., Coulon J.-P., Coward D., Coyne D. C., Creighton J. D. E., Creighton T. D., Cruise A. M., Culter R. M., Cumming A., Cunningham L., Cuoco E., Danilishin S. L., D�Antonio S., Danzmann K., Dari A., Dattilo V., Daudert B., Davier M., Davies G., Daw E. J., Day R., De Rosa R., DeBra D., Degallaix J., del Prete M., Dergachev V., Desai S., DeSalvo R., Dhurandhar S., Di Fiore L., Di Lieto A., Di Paolo Emilio M., Di Virgilio A., D�az M., Dietz A., Donovan F., Dooley K. L., Doomes E. E., Drago M., Drever R. W. P., Dueck J., Duke I., Dumas J.-C., Dwyer J. G., Echols C., Edgar M., Effler A., Ehrens P., Ely G., Espinoza E., Etzel T., Evans M., Evans T., Fafone V., Fairhurst S., Faltas Y., Fan Y., Fazi D., Fehrmann H., Ferrante I., Fidecaro F., Finn L. S., Fiori I., Flaminio R., Flasch K., Foley S., Forrest C., Fotopoulos N., Fournier J.-D., Franc J., Franzen A., Frasca S., Frasconi F., Frede M., Frei M., Frei Z., Freise A., Frey R., Fricke T., Fritschel P., Frolov V. V., Fyffe M., Galdi V., Gammaitoni L., Garofoli J. A., Garufi F., Genin E., Gennai A., Gholami I., Giaime J. A., Giampanis S., Giardina K. D., Giazotto A., Goda K., Goetz E., Goggin L. M., Gonz�lez G., Gorodetsky M. L., Goler S., Gouaty R., Granata M., Granata V., Grant A., Gras S., Gray C., Gray M., Greenhalgh R. J. S., Gretarsson A. M., Greverie C., Grimaldi F., Grosso R., Grote H., Grunewald S., Guenther M., Guidi G., Gustafson E. K., Gustafson R., Hage B., Hallam J. M., Hammer D., Hammond G. D., Hanna C., Hanson J., Harms J., Harry G. M., Harry I. W., Harstad E. D., Haughian K., Hayama K., Heefner J., Heitmann H., Hello P., Heng I. S., Heptonstall A., Hewitson M., Hild S., Hirose E., Hoak D., Hodge K. A., Holt K., Hosken D. J., Hough J., Hoyland D., Huet D., Hughey B., Huttner S. H., Ingram D. R., Isogai T., Ito M., Ivanov A., Johnson B., Johnson W. W., Jones D. I., Jones G., Jones R., Sancho de la Jordana L., Ju L., Kalmus P., Kalogera V., Kandhasamy S., Kanner J., Kasprzyk D., Katsavounidis E., Kawabe K., Kawamura S., Kawazoe F., Kells W., Keppel D. G., Khalaidovski A., Khalili F. Y., Khan R., Khazanov E., King P., Kisse J. S., Klimenko S., Kokeyama K., Kondrashov V., Kopparapu R., Koranda S., Kozak D., Krishnan B., Kumar R., Kwee P., La Penna P., Lam P. K., Landry M., Lantz B., Lava M., Lazzarini A., Lei H., Lei M., Leindecker N., Leonor I., Leroy N., Letendre N., Li C., Lin H., Lindquist P. E., Littenberg T. B., Lockerbie N. A., Lodhia D., Longo M., Lorenzini M., Loriette V., Lormand M., Losurdo G., Lu P., Lubinski M., Lucianetti A., L�ck H., Machenschalk B., MacInnis M., Mackowski J.-M., Mageswaran M., Mailand K., Majorana E., Man N., Mandel I., Mandic V., Mantovani M., Marchesoni F., Marion F., M�rka S., M�rka Z., Markosyan A., Markowitz J., Maros E., Marque J., Martelli F., Martin I. W., Martin R. M., Marx J. N., Mason K., Masserot A., Matichard F., Matone L., Matzner R. A., Mavalvala N., McCarthy R., McClelland D. E., McGuire S. C., McHugh M., McIntyre G., McKechan D. J. A., McKenzie K., Mehmet M., Melatos A., Melissinos A. C., Mendell G., Men�ndez D. F., Menzinger F., Mercer R. A., Meshkov S., Messenger C., Meyer M. S., Michel C., Milano L., Miller J., Minelli J., Minenkov Y., Mino Y., Mitrofanov V. P., Mitselmakher G., Mittleman R., Miyakawa O., Moe B., Mohan M., Mohanty S. D., Mohapatra S. R. P., Moreau J., Moreno G., Morgado N., Morgia A., Morioka T., Mors K., Mosca S., Mossavi K., Mours B., MowLowry C., Mueller G., Muhammad D., zur M�hlen H., Mukherjee S., Mukhopadhyay H., Mullavey A., M�ller-Ebhardt H., Munch J., Murray P. G., Myers E., Myers J., Nash T., Nelson J., Neri I., Newton G., Nishizawa A., Nocera F., Numata K., Ochsner E., O�Dell J., Ogin G. H., O�Reilly B., O�Shaughnessy R., Ottaway D. J., Ottens R. S., Overmier H., Owen B. J., Pagliaroli G., Palomba C., Pan Y., Pankow C., Paoletti F., Papa M. A, Parameshwaraiah V., Pardi S., Pasqualetti A., Passaquieti R., Passuello D., Patel P., Pedraza M., Penn S., Perreca A., Persichetti G., Pichot M., Piergiovanni F., Pierro V., Pinard L., Pinto I. M., Pitkin M., Pletsch H. J., Plissi M. V., Poggiani R., Postiglione F., Principe M., Prix R., Prodi G.A., Prokhorov L., Punken O., Punturo M., Puppo P., van der Putten S., Quetschke V., Raab F. J., Rabaste O., Rabeling D. S., Radkins H., Raffai P., Raics Z., Rainer N., Rakhmanov M., Rapagnani P., Raymond V., Re V., Reed C. M., Reed T., Regimbau T., Rehbein H., Reid S., Reitze D. H., Ricci F., Riesen R., Riles K., Rivera B., Roberts P., Robertson N. A., Robinet F., Robinson C., Robinson E. L., Rocchi A., Roddy S., Rolland L., Rollins J., Romano J. D., Romano R., Romie J. H., R�ver C., Rowan S., R�diger A., Ruggi P., Russell P., Ryan K., Sakata S., Salemi F., Sandberg V., Sannibale V., Santamar�a L., Saraf S., Sarin P., Sassolas B., Sathyaprakash B. S., Sato S., Satterthwaite M., Saulson P. R., Savage R., Savov P., Scanlan M., Schilling R., Schnabel R., Schofield R., Schulz B., Schutz B. F., Schwinberg P., Scott J., Scott S. M., Searle A. C., Sears B., Seifert F., Sellers D., Sengupta A. S., Sentenac D., Sergeev A., Shapiro B., Shawhan P., Shoemaker D. H., Sibley A., Siemens X., Sigg D., Sinha S., Sintes A. M., Slagmolen B. J. J., Slutsky J., van der Sluys M. V., Smith J. R., Smith M. R., Smith N. D., Somiya K., Sorazu B., Stein A., Stein L. C., Steplewski S., Stochino A., Stone R., Strain K. A., Strigin S., Stroeer A., Sturani R., Stuver A. L., Summerscales T. Z., Sun K.-X., Sung M., Sutton P. J., Swinkels B. L., Szokoly G. P., Talukder D., Tang L., Tanner D. B., Tarabrin S. P., Taylor J. R., Taylor R., Terenzi R., Thacker J., Thorne K. A., Thorne K. S., Th�ring A., Tokmakov K. V., Toncelli A., Tonelli M., Torres C., Torrie C., Tournefier E., Travasso F., Traylor G., Trias M., Trummer J., Ugolini D., Ulmen J., Urbanek K., Vahlbruch H., Vajente G., Vallisneri M., Vass S., Vaulin R., Vavoulidis M., Vecchio A., Vedovato G., van Veggel A. A., Veitch J., Veitch P., Veltkamp C., Verkindt D., Vetrano F., Vicer� A., Villar A., Vinet J.-Y., Vocca H., Vorvick C., Vyachanin S. P., Waldman S. J., Wallace L., Ward H., Ward R. L., Was M., Weidner A., Weinert M., Weinstein A. J., Weiss R., Wen L., Wen S., Wette K., Whelan J. T., Whitcomb S. E., Whiting B. F., Wilkinson C., Willems P. A., Williams H. R., Williams L., Willke B., Wilmut I., Winkelmann L., Winkler W., Wipf C. C., Wiseman A. G., Woan G., Wooley R., Worden J., Wu W., Yakushin I., Yamamoto H., Yan Z., Yoshida S., Yvert M., Zanolin M., Zhang J., Zhang L., Zhao C., Zotov N., Zucker M. E., Zweizig J.

Autors Affiliation: Univ Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455 USA; CALTECH, LIGO, Pasadena, CA 91125 USA; Ist Nazl Fis Nucl, Sez Napoli, I-80126 Naples, Italy; Univ Napoli Federico II Complesso Univ Monte S An, I-80126 Naples, Italy; Univ Salerno, I-84084 Salerno, Italy; Max Planck Inst Gravitat Phys, Albert Einstein Inst, D-30167 Hannover, Germany; Univ Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI 53201 USA; Stanford Univ, Stanford, CA 94305 USA; Louisiana State Univ, Baton Rouge, LA 70803 USA; Univ Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611 USA; Observ Cote Azur, CNRS, Dept Artemis, F-06304 Nice, France; Univ Paris 11, CNRS, IN2P3, LAL, F-91899 Orsay, France; Univ Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, W Midlands, England; Leibniz Univ Hannover, D-30167 Hannover, Germany; Max Planck Inst Gravitat Phys, Albert Einstein Inst, D-14476 Golm, Germany; Montana State Univ, Bozeman, MT 59717 USA; European Gravitat Observ, I-56021 Cascina, Pi, Italy; LIGO Hanford Observ, Richland, WA 99352 USA; Univ Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, Lanark, Scotland; Univ Western Australia, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia; MIT, LIGO, Cambridge, MA 02139 USA; Univ Paris 07, CNRS, IN2P3, Observ Paris,APC,UMR 7164, F-75205 Paris, France; Ist Nazl Fis Nucl, Sez Pisa, I-56127 Pisa, Italy; Univ Pisa, I-56127 Pisa, Italy; Univ Siena, I-53100 Siena, Italy; Ist Nazl Fis Nucl, Sez Roma, I-00185 Rome, Italy; Univ Roma La Sapienza, I-00185 Rome, Italy; DSM IRSU, F-91191 Gif Sur Yvette, France; Columbia Univ, New York, NY 10027 USA; NIKHEF H, Natl Inst Subatom Phys, NL-1009 DB Amsterdam, Netherlands; Netherlands VU Univ Amsterdam, NL-1081 HV Amsterdam, Netherlands; Univ Texas Brownsville & Texas Southmost Coll, Brownsville, TX 78520 USA; San Jose State Univ, San Jose, CA 95192 USA; Moscow MV Lomonosov State Univ, Moscow 119992, Russia; CNRS, ESPCI, F-75005 Paris, France; Livingston Observ, LIGO, Livingston, LA 70754 USA; Washington State Univ, Pullman, WA 99164 USA; Ist Nazl Fis Nucl, Sez Perugia, I-6123 Perugia, Italy; Univ Perugia, I-6123 Perugia, Italy; Univ Camerino, I-62032 Camerino, Italy; Univ Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403 USA; Cardiff Univ, Cardiff CF24 3AA, S Glam, Wales; Syracuse Univ, Syracuse, NY 13244 USA; HSIC, Rutherford Appleton Lab, Didcot OX11 0QX, Oxon, England; Univ Maryland, College Pk, MD 20742 USA; Univ Savoie, CNRS, IN2P3, LAPP, F-74941 Annecy Le Vieux, France; Univ Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003 USA; Ist Nazl Fis Nucl, Sez Firenze, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy; Univ Florence, I-50121 Florence, Italy; Univ Urbino Carlo Bo, I-61029 Urbino, Italy; NASA, Goddard Space Flight Ctr, Greenbelt, MD 20771 USA; Univ Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA; Univ Sannio Benevento, I-82100 Benevento, Italy; Univ Mississippi, University, MS 38677 USA; Charles Sturt Univ, Wagga Wagga, NSW 2678, Australia; CALTECH CaRT, Pasadena, CA 91125 USA; Carleton Coll, Northfield, MN 55057 USA; Univ Melbourne, Parkville, Vic 3010, Australia; Ist Nazl Fis Nucl, Sez Roma Tor Vergata, I-00133 Rome, Italy; Univ Roma Tor Vergata, I-00133 Rome, Italy; IFSI, I-00133 Rome, Italy; Univ Aquila, I-67100 Laquila, Italy; Eotvos Lorand Univ, ELTE, H-1053 Budapest, Hungary; Univ Salerno, I-84084 Salerno, Italy; Univ Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, S Yorkshire, England; Penn State Univ, University Pk, PA 16802 USA; Inter Univ Ctr Astron & Astrophys, Pune 411007, Maharashtra, India; Southern Univ, Baton Rouge, LA 70813 USA; A&M Coll, Baton Rouge, LA 70813 USA; Ist Nazl Fis Nucl, Grp Coll Trento, I-38050 Trento, Italy; Univ Trent, I-38050 Trento, Italy; Ist Nazl Fis Nucl, Sez Padova, I-35131 Padua, Italy; Univ Padua, I-35131 Padua, Italy; CNRS, IN2P3, LMA, F-69622 Villeurbanne, France; Univ Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627 USA; Univ Texas Austin, Austin, TX 78712 USA; Australian Natl Univ, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia; Embry Riddle Aeronaut Univ, Prescott, AZ 86301 USA; Univ Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia; Univ Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, Hants, England; Univ Illes Balears, Dept Fis, E-07122 Palma de Mallorca, Spain; Northwestern Univ, Evanston, IL 60208 USA; Natl Astron Observ Japan, Tokyo 1818588, Japan; Inst Appl Phys, Nizhnii Novgorod 603950, Russia; Univ Strathclyde, Glasgow G1 1XQ, Lanark, Scotland; Tulane Univ, New Orleans, LA 70118 USA; Hobart & William Smith Coll, Geneva, NY 14456 USA; Louisiana Tech Univ, Ruston, LA 71272 USA; Andrews Univ, Berrien Springs, MI 49104 USA; Sonoma State Univ, Rohnert Pk, CA 94928 USA; Trinity Univ, San Antonio, TX 78712 USA; Rochester Inst Technol, Rochester, NY 14623 USA

Abstract: A stochastic background of gravitational waves is expected to arise from a superposition of a large number of unresolved gravitational-wave sources of astrophysical and cosmological origin. It should carry unique signatures from the earliest epochs in the evolution of the Universe, inaccessible to standard astrophysical observations(1). Direct measurements of the amplitude of this background are therefore of fundamental importance for understanding the evolution of the Universe when it was younger than one minute. Here we report limits on the amplitude of the stochastic gravitational-wave background using the data from a two-year science run of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory(2) (LIGO). Our result constrains the energy density of the stochastic gravitational-wave background normalized by the critical energy density of the Universe, in the frequency band around 100 Hz, to be <6.9 X 10(-6) at 95% confidence. The data rule out models of early Universe evolution with relatively large equation-of-state parameter(3), as well as cosmic (super) string models with relatively small string tension(4) that are favoured in some string theory models(5). This search for the stochastic background improves on the indirect limits from Big Bang nucleosynthesis(1,6) and cosmic microwave background(7) at 100Hz. Journal/Review: NATURE

Volume: 460 (7258) Pages from: 990 to: 994

More Information: We acknowledge the support of the United States National Science Foundation for the construction and operation of the LIGO Laboratory, the Science and Technology Facilities Council of the United Kingdom, the Max Planck Society, and the State of Niedersachsen/Germany for support of the construction and operation of the GEO600 detector, and the Italian Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare and the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique for the construction and operation of the Virgo detector. We also acknowledge the support of the research by these agencies and by the Australian Research Council, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research of India, the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare of Italy, the Spanish Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia, the Conselleria d\’Economia Hisenda i Innovacio of the Govern de les Illes Balears, the Royal Society, the Scottish Funding Council, the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance, The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Carnegie Trust, the Leverhulme Trust, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Research Corporation, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
KeyWords: stochastic background; gravitational waves; LIGO; Virgo; string cosmology
DOI: 10.1038/nature08278

Citations: 291
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