Upper Limit on a Stochastic Background of Gravitational Waves from Seismic Measurements in the Range 0.05 Hz to 1 Hz

Abstract

In this paper, we present an upper limit of $Ω_{\rm GW}<1.2\times 10^{8}$ on an isotropic stochastic gravitational-wave (GW) background integrated over a year in the frequency range 0.05 Hz - 1 Hz, which improves current upper limits from high-precision laboratory experiments by about 9 orders of magnitude. The limit is obtained using the response of Earth itself to GWs via a free-surface effect described more than 40 years ago by F.J. Dyson. The response was measured by a global network of broadband seismometers selected to maximize the sensitivity.