R. Abbott, California Institute of TechnologyFollow
T. D. Abbott, Louisiana State UniversityFollow
S. Abraham, Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics IndiaFollow
F. Acernese, Università degli Studi di SalernoFollow
K. Ackley, Monash UniversityFollow
A. Adams, Christopher Newport UniversityFollow
C. Adams, LIGO LivingstonFollow
R. X. Adhikari, California Institute of TechnologyFollow
V. B. Adya, The Australian National UniversityFollow
C. Affeldt, Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute)Follow
D. Agarwal, Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics IndiaFollow
M. Agathos, University of CambridgeFollow
K. Agatsuma, University of BirminghamFollow
N. Aggarwal, Northwestern UniversityFollow
O. D. Aguiar, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas EspaciaisFollow
L. Aiello, Cardiff UniversityFollow
A. Ain, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di PisaFollow
P. Ajith, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, MumbaiFollow
T. Akutsu, National Institutes of Natural Sciences - National Astronomical Observatory of JapanFollow
K. M. Aleman, California State University, FullertonFollow
G. Allen, University of Illinois Urbana-ChampaignFollow
A. Allocca, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di NapoliFollow
P. A. Altin, The Australian National UniversityFollow
A. Amato, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1Follow
S. Anand, California Institute of TechnologyFollow
A. Ananyeva, California Institute of TechnologyFollow
S. B. Anderson, California Institute of TechnologyFollow
W. G. Anderson, University of Wisconsin-MilwaukeeFollow
M. Ando, The University of TokyoFollow
S. V. Angelova, University of Strathclyde
S. Ansoldi, Università degli Studi di Udine
J. M. Antelis, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Prescott
S. Antier, Université de Paris

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-18-2021

Abstract

We search for gravitational-wave signals produced by cosmic strings in the Advanced LIGO and Virgo full O3 dataset. Search results are presented for gravitational waves produced by cosmic string loop features such as cusps, kinks, and, for the first time, kink-kink collisions. A template-based search for short-duration transient signals does not yield a detection. We also use the stochastic gravitational-wave background energy density upper limits derived from the O3 data to constrain the cosmic string tension Gμ as a function of the number of kinks, or the number of cusps, for two cosmic string loop distribution models. Additionally, we develop and test a third model that interpolates between these two models. Our results improve upon the previous LIGO-Virgo constraints on Gμ by 1 to 2 orders of magnitude depending on the model that is tested. In particular, for the one-loop distribution model, we set the most competitive constraints to date: Gμ≲4×10-15. In the case of cosmic strings formed at the end of inflation in the context of grand unified theories, these results challenge simple inflationary models.

Publication Source (Journal or Book title)

Physical Review Letters

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