IGEC2: A 17-month search for gravitational wave bursts in 2005-2007

We present here the results of a 515 day search for short bursts of gravitational waves by the IGEC2 observatory. This network included 4 cryogenic resonant-bar detectors: AURIGA, EXPLORER, and NAUTILUS in Europe, and ALLEGRO in America. These results cover the time period from November 6th 2005 until April 15th 2007, partly overlapping the first long term observations by the LIGO interferometric detectors. The observatory operated with high duty cycle, namely, 57% for fourfold coincident observations, and 94% for threefold observations. The sensitivity was the best ever obtained by a bar network: we could detect, with an efficiency >50%, impulsive events with a burst strain amplitude hrssr1×10-19Hz-1/2. The network data analysis was based on time coincidence searches over at least three detectors, used a blind search technique, and was tuned to achieve a false alarm rate of 1/century. When the blinding was removed, no gravitational wave candidate was found