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GFH-v2 pipeline for searches of long-transient gravitational waves from newborn magnetars

Sandhya Sajith Menon1,2,3, Lorenzo Pierini2, Pia Astone2, Cristiano Palomba2, Lorenzo Silvestri3,4, Sabrina D’Antonio2, Simone Dall’Osso5, Francesco Safai Tehrani2, Stefano Dal Pra4 et al.

Gaetano Dinatale3, Sergio Frasca2, Dafne Guetta1, Paola Leaci2,3, and Alessio Orlandi3

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Phys. Rev. D 113, 123042 – Published 15 June, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/jqf5-hbzk

Abstract

This paper presents an enhanced methodology for searching long transient gravitational w aves associated with a newborn magnetar, with particular focus on the regime in which the early spin down is dominated by gravitational-wave emission. The analysis is performed using a strongly improved version of the generalized Frequency Hough Transform algorithm, called GFH-v2. We describe the main developments introduced relative to the original implementation and outline the optimized parameter-space selection used in the search. We then compute the theoretical sensitivity of the method and compare it with an empirical sensitivity estimate obtained by injecting simulated signals into LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA O4a data. The updated framework achieves improved sensitivity and computational performance. These results provide a robust basis for future directed searches for long-transient gravitational-wave signals from core-collapse supernovae and other transient events in current and upcoming observing runs.

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Phys. Rev. D 113, 123042– Published 15 June, 2026
  • Received 2 December 2025
  • Accepted 13 May 2026
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