Einstein: Results of Einstein@Home Search for Gravitational Waves in Full LIGO S5 Dat

After several years of analysis and post-processing work, the results of the Einstein@Home search for gravitational waves in the full LIGO S5 data set are now publicly available. The paper can be found here http://arxiv.org/abs/1207.7176. The results are negative: no statistically-significant gravitational wave signals have been detected. However the search excluded signals with a greater level of sensitivity than previously achieved. For example, in the 0.5 Hz-wide band at 152.5 Hz, signals with intrinsic strain h0 greater than 7.6e-25 are excluded with 90% confidence. Einstein@Home will continue to search for gravitational-wave signals. In the long term, we are optimistic. The LIGO and VIRGO and GEO detectors are all undergoing hardware upgrades to improve their sensitivity, and Einstein@Home is will continue to develop and employ better and more sensitive data analysis methods. Bruce Allen Director, Einstein@Home

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