Search for Short‐Duration Transient Gravitational Waves Emitted by Neutron Star Glitches

Abstract

Neutron stars are known to show an accelerated spin‐up of their rotational frequency on a short time scale of around 40 s, called a “glitch” in the neutron star. These neutron star glitches can emit short‐duration transient gravitational wave signals as f‐mode oscillations at frequencies between 1.5 and 3 kHz and damping times of less than a few seconds. The observed rate of neutron star glitches are currently limited by their electromagnetic observations. There could be a population of the isolated neutron stars in the galaxy for which there is no electromagnetic observation, but they can produce gravitational wave signals. Here, the sensitivity of the generic all‐sky search for short‐duration transients towards neutron star glitches during the Advanced LIGO and Virgo's third observing run using the Coherent WaveBurst algorithm is presented. The prospects of detecting signals from such glitching neutron stars for the upcoming fourth and fifth observing runs of Advanced LIGO and Virgo detectors are also described.