Search for Sub-Solar Mass Binaries in the First Part of LIGO's Fourth Observing Run

Keisi Kacanja¹, Kanchan Soni¹, Aleyna Akyüz¹, Alexander H. Nitz¹

_{1. Department of Physics, Syracuse University, Crouse Dr, Syracuse, NY 13210}

Introduction

This project presents the first search for sub-solar mass compact binaries in the first half of LIGO’s fourth observing run (O4a) using a matched-filtering approach. We analyze gravitational wave strain data with the PyCBC package, constructing a template bank to model possible signals and performing an optimized search across the O4a dataset. The repository associated with this work provides all necessary files to reproduce the template bank, execute the search, and evaluate the resulting upper limits on merger rates for sub-solar mass binaries. Our results provide updated constraints on the existence of sub-solar mass binary systems and demonstrate the capabilities of current LIGO analyses in probing low-mass parameter space.

Paper Link

arXiv:2602.12115

License and Citation

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

We encourage use of these data products in this work. If you use the materials provided here, kindly acknowledge this work by citing the following reference:

@article{Kacanja:2026byy,
    author = "Kacanja, Keisi and Soni, Kanchan and Akyuz, Aleyna and Nitz, Alexander H.",
    title = "{Search for Sub-Solar Mass Binaries in the First Part of LIGO's Fourth Observing Run}",
    eprint = "2602.12115",
    archivePrefix = "arXiv",
    primaryClass = "astro-ph.HE",
    month = "2",
    year = "2026"
}