BinarySkyHough: a new method to search for continuous gravitational waves from unknown neutron stars in binary systems

Abstract

Non-axysymmetric, fast-spinning unknown neutron stars in binary systems may emit continuous gravitational waves (nearly-monochromatic long-duration signals) which can be detected by ground-based detectors like LIGO and Virgo. In this paper we present a new pipeline, called $\textit{BinarySkyHough}$, that can carry out all-sky searches for neutron stars in binary systems by exploiting the usage of graphics processing units. We give a detailed explanation of this new pipeline, and we present simulations which allow us to estimate the sensitivity of the new pipeline, which is approximately twice as sensitive as the best active pipeline with a comparable computational cost.