Searches for continuous gravitational waves from supernova remnants in the first part of the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA fourth observing run

Al-Shammari, Sama, Amarasinghege, Oshadha, Bergamin, Fabio, Divyajyoti, Divyajyoti ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2787-1012, Dooley, Katherine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1636-0233, Fairhurst, Stephen ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8480-1961, Goettel, A.S., Grote, Hartmut ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0797-3943, Hannam, Mark ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5571-325X, Higginbotham, Samuel, Javed, Wasim ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-1471-7890, Kinnear, Meryl, Kokeyama, Keiko ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2896-1992, Kuntimaddi, Nikitha, MacLeod, Duncan M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1395-8694, Norman, Michael, North, Christopher, Patra, Abhinav, Patterson, Ben G., Pearce, Terri, Raymond, Vivien ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0066-0095, Riley, H.K., Schutz, Bernard F. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9487-6983, Skliris, Vasileios, Sutton, Patrick ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1614-3922, Tanioka, Satoshi and Tsang, Terrence 2026. Searches for continuous gravitational waves from supernova remnants in the first part of the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA fourth observing run. The Astrophysical Journal 1004 (2) , 204. 10.3847/1538-4357/ae6263

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Abstract

We present results from directed searches for continuous gravitational waves from a sample of 15 nearby supernova remnants, likely hosting young neutron star candidates, using data from the first eight months of the fourth observing run (O4) of the LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA Collaboration. The analysis employs five pipelines: four semicoherent methods—the Band-Sampled-Data directed pipeline, Weave, and two Viterbi pipelines (single- and dual-harmonic)—and PyStoch, a cross-correlation-based pipeline. These searches cover wide frequency bands and do not assume prior knowledge of the targets’ ephemerides. No evidence of a signal is found from any of the 15 sources. We set 95% confidence-level upper limits on the intrinsic strain amplitude, with the most stringent constraints reaching ∼4 × 10−26 near 300 Hz for the nearby source G266.2−1.2 (Vela Jr.). We also derive limits on neutron star ellipticity and r-mode amplitudes for the same source, with the best constraints reaching ≲10−7 and ≲10−5, respectively, at frequencies above 400 Hz. For frequencies above 200 Hz, these results represent the most sensitive wide-band directed searches for continuous gravitational waves from supernova remnants to date.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > Physics and Astronomy
Additional Information:	License information from Publisher: LICENSE 1: URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, Type: cc-by Please see https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ae6263 for full author list
Publisher:	American Astronomical Society
ISSN:	0004-637X
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	22 June 2026
Date of Acceptance:	16 April 2026
Last Modified:	07 Aug 2026 22:31
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/187694

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