Search for continuous gravitational waves from Fomalhaut b in the second Advanced LIGO observing run with a hidden Markov model

Abstract

Results are presented from a semicoherent search for continuous gravitational waves from a nearby neutron star candidate, Fomalhaut b, using data collected in the second observing run of Advanced LIGO. The search is based on a hidden Markov model scheme, capable of tracking signal frequency evolution from the star’s secular spin-down and stochastic timing noise simultaneously. The scheme is combined with a frequency domain matched filter (F-statistic), calculated coherently over five-day time stretches. The frequency band 100–1000 Hz is searched. After passing the above-threshold candidates through a hierarchy of vetoes, one candidate slightly above the 1% false alarm probability threshold remains for further scrutiny. No strong evidence of continuous waves is found. We present the strain upper limits in the full frequency band searched at 90% confidence level.