Search for Eccentric Binary Neutron Star Mergers in the First and Second Observing Runs of Advanced LIGO

Abstract

We present a search for gravitational waves from merging binary neutron stars (BNSs) which have non-negligible eccentricity as they enter the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) observing band. We use the public Advanced LIGO data which covers the period from 2015 through 2017 and contains ∼164 days of LIGO–Hanford and LIGO–Livingston coincident observing time. The search was conducted using matched-filtering using the PyCBC toolkit. We find no significant BNS candidates beyond GW170817, which has previously been reported by searches for binaries in circular orbits. We place a 90% upper limit of ∼1700 mergers Gpc −3 yr −1 for eccentricities ≲0.43 at a dominant-mode gravitational-wave frequency of 10 Hz. The absence of a detection with these data is consistent with theoretical predictions of eccentric BNS merger rates. Using our measured rate we estimate the sensitive volume of future gravitational-wave detectors and compare this to theoretical rate predictions. We find that, in the absence of a prior detection, the rate limits set by six months of Cosmic Explorer observations would constrain all current plausible models of eccentric BNS formation.