Detecting Gravitational Radiation from Neutron Stars using a Six‐Parameter Adaptive MCMC Method

We present a Markov chain Monte Carlo technique for detecting gravitational radiation from a neutron star in laser interferometer data. The algorithm can estimate up to six unknown parameters of the target, including the rotation frequency and frequency derivative, using reparametrization, delayed rejection and simulated annealing. The ultimate goal of this research is to search for sources at a known locations, but uncertain spin parameters, such as may be found in SN1987A. Therefore it is also of interest to assess the detectability of signals with the utilized algorithm, and to set an upper limit on the strength of a signal in the absence of a detection.