B. Allen, J.K. Blackburn, P.R. Brady, J.D.E Creighton, T.Creighton, S. Droz, A.D. Gillespie, S.A. Hughes, S. Kawamura, T.T.Lyons, J.E. Mason, B.J. Owen, F.J. Raab, M.W. Regehr, B.S.Sathyaprakash, R.L. Savage, Jr., S. Whitcomb, A.G. Wiseman

Using optimal matched filtering, we search 25 hours of data from the LIGO 40-meter prototype laser interferometric gravitational-wave detector for gravitational-wave chirps emitted by coalescing binary systems within our Galaxy.  This is the first test of this filtering technique on real Interferometric data.  An upper limit on the rate R of neutron star binary inspirals in our Galaxy is obtained: with 90% confidence, R< 0.5/hour.  Similar experiments with LIGO interferometers will provide constraints on the population of tight binary neutron star systems in the Universe.