Abstract

Traditionally, searches for continuous gravitational waves have looked for neutron stars with varying mass or current quadrupoles. If information is known about the source — such as a sky position or even a full ephemeris — this information can be used to run a more sensitive search around the known parameters of that source. These directed and targeted searches have set new and ever-improving constraints on the properties of individual neutron stars. The searches can also be applied to other astrophysical sources, such as continuous waves from boson clouds that have built up around black holes due to superradiance. I will discuss the current status of directed and targeted searches for continuous gravitational waves with the advanced LIGO and Virgo detectors, and sketch out some considerations for running directed searches for boson clouds.