How to search for gravitational waves from r-modes of known pulsars

Searches for continuous gravitational waves from known pulsars so far have been targeted at or near the spin frequency or double the spin frequency of each pulsar, appropriate for mass quadrupole emission. But some neutron stars might radiate strongly through current quadrupoles via r-modes, which oscillate at about four thirds the spin frequency. We show for the first time how to construct searches over appropriate ranges of frequencies and spin-down parameters to target r-modes from known pulsars. We estimate computational costs and sensitivities of realistic r-mode searches using the coherent F-statistic, and find that feasible searches for known pulsars can beat spin-down limits on gravitational wave emission even with existing LIGO and Virgo data: The spin-down limit of the Crab pulsar is accessible with data from LIGO's first observing run, while the Vcla pulsar and several others are accessible with data from the second run.