For 17 days in August and September 2002, the LIGO and GEO interferometer gravitational wave detectors were operated in coincidence to produce their first data for scientific analysis. Although the detectors were still far from their design sensitivity levels, the data can be used to place better upper limits on the flux of gravitational waves incident on the earth than previous direct measurements. This paper describes the instruments and the data in some detail, as a companion to analysis papers based on the first data. r

We present the analysis of between 50 and 100 h of coincident interferometric strain data used to search for and establish an upper limit on a stochastic background of gravitational radiation. These data come from the first LIGO science run, during which all three LIGO interferometers were operated over a 2-week period spanning August and September of 2002. The method of cross correlating the outputs of two interferometers is used for analysis. We describe in detail practical signal processing issues that arise when working with real data, and we establish an observational upper limit on a f Ϫ3 power spectrum of gravitational waves. Our 90% confidence limit is ⍀ 0 h 100 2 р23Ϯ4.6 in the frequency band 40-314 Hz, where h 100 is the Hubble constant in units of 100 km/sec/Mpc and ⍀ 0 is the gravitational wave energy density per logarithmic frequency interval in units of the closure density. This limit is approximately 10 4 times better than the previous, broadband direct limit using interferometric detectors, and nearly 3 times better than the best narrow-band bar detector limit. As LIGO and other worldwide detectors improve in sensitivity and attain their design goals, the analysis procedures described here should lead to stochastic background sensitivity levels of astrophysical interest.

We report on a search for gravitational waves from coalescing compact binary systems in the Milky Way and the Magellanic Clouds. The analysis uses data taken by two of the three LIGO interferometers during the first LIGO science run and illustrates a method of setting upper limits on inspiral event rates using interferometer data. The analysis pipeline is described with particular attention to data selection and coincidence between the two interferometers. We establish an observational upper limit of RϽ1.7ϫ10 2 per year per Milky Way Equivalent Galaxy ͑MWEG͒, with 90% confidence, on the coalescence rate of binary systems in which each component has a mass in the range 1 -3 M ᭪ .

We perform a search for gravitational wave bursts using data from the second science run of the LIGO detectors, using a method based on a wavelet time-frequency decomposition. This search is sensitive to bursts of duration much less than a second and with frequency content in the 100 -1100 Hz range. It features significant improvements in the instrument sensitivity and in the analysis pipeline with respect to the burst search previously reported by LIGO. Improvements in the search method allow exploring weaker signals, relative to the detector noise floor, while maintaining a low false alarm rate, O0:1 Hz. The sensitivity in terms of the root-sum-square (rss) strain amplitude lies in the range of h rss 10 ÿ20 ÿ 10 ÿ19 Hz ÿ1=2 . No gravitational wave signals were detected in 9.98 days of analyzed data. We interpret the search result in terms of a frequentist upper limit on the rate of detectable gravitational wave bursts at the level of 0.26 events per day at 90% confidence level. We combine this limit with measurements of the B. ABBOTT et al.PHYSICAL REVIEW D 72, 062001 (2005) 062001-2 detection efficiency for selected waveform morphologies in order to yield rate versus strength exclusion curves as well as to establish order-of-magnitude distance sensitivity to certain modeled astrophysical sources. Both the rate upper limit and its applicability to signal strengths improve our previously reported limits and reflect the most sensitive broad-band search for untriggered and unmodeled gravitational wave bursts to date.

Data collected by the GEO 600 and LIGO interferometric gravitational wave detectors during their first observational science run were searched for continuous gravitational waves from the pulsar J1939ϩ2134 at twice its rotation frequency. Two independent analysis methods were used and are demonstrated in this paper: a frequency domain method and a time domain method. Both achieve consistent null results, placing new upper limits on the strength of the pulsar's gravitational wave emission. A model emission mechanism is used to interpret the limits as a constraint on the pulsar's equatorial ellipticity.