Search for gravitational waves from low mass compact binary coalescence in LIGO’s sixth science run and Virgo’s science runs 2 and 3

Abstract

WereportonasearchforgravitationalwavesfromcoalescingcompactbinariesusingLIGOandVirgo observationsbetweenJuly7,2009,andOctober20,2010.Wesearchedforsignalsfrombinarieswithtotal massbetween2and25Msun:thisincludesbinaryneutronstars,binaryblackholes,andbinariesconsisting ofablackholeandneutronstar.Thedetectorsweresensitivetosystemsupto40Mpcdistantforbinary neutronstars,andfurtherforhighermasssystems.Nogravitational-wavesignalsweredetected.Wereport upperlimitsontherateofcompactbinarycoalescenceasafunctionoftotalmass,includingtheresults frompreviousLIGOandVirgoobservations.Thecumulative90%confidencerateupperlimitsofthe binarycoalescenceofbinaryneutronstar,neutronstar-blackhole,andbinaryblackholesystemsare 1.3x10(-4),3.1x10(-5),and6.4x10(-6)Mpc(-3)yr(-1),respectively.Theseupperlimitsareuptoafactor 1.4lowerthanpreviouslyderivedlimits.Wealsoreportonresultsfromablindinjectionchallenge.