New Searches for Continuous Gravitational Waves from Seven Fast Pulsars

Abstract We conduct searches for continuous gravitational waves from seven pulsars that have not been targeted in continuous wave searches of Advanced LIGO data before. We target emission at exactly twice the rotation frequency of the pulsars and in a small band around such a frequency. The former search assumes that the gravitational-wave quadrupole is changing in a phase-locked manner with the rotation of the pulsar. The latter search over a range of frequencies allows for differential rotation between the component emitting the radio signal and the component emitting the gravitational waves, for example the crust or magnetosphere versus the core. Timing solutions derived from the Arecibo 327 MHz Drift-Scan Pulsar Survey observations are used. No evidence of a signal is found and upper limits are set on the gravitational-wave amplitude. For one of the pulsars we probe gravitational-wave intrinsic amplitudes just a factor of 3.8 higher than the spin-down limit, assuming a canonical moment of inertia of 10 38 kg m 2 . Our tightest ellipticity constraint is 1.5 × 10 −8 , which is a value well within the range of what a neutron star crust could support.