Wagner, Katelyn J.Whelan, John T.Wofford, Jared K.Wette, Karl2023-08-010264-9381http://hdl.handle.net/1885/294685We describe the application of the lattice covering problem to the placement of templates in a search for continuous gravitational waves from the low-mass x-ray binary Scorpius X-1. Efficient placement of templates to cover the parameter space at a given maximum mismatch is an application of the sphere covering problem, for which an implementation is available in the LatticeTiling software library. In the case of Sco X-1, potential correlations, in both the prior uncertainty and the mismatch metric, between the orbital period and orbital phase, lead to complications in the efficient construction of the lattice. We define a shearing coordinate transformation which simultaneously minimizes both of these sources of correlation, and allows us to take advantage of the small prior orbital period uncertainty. The resulting lattices have a factor of about three fewer templates than the corresponding parameter space grids constructed by the prior straightforward method, allowing a more sensitive search at the same computing cost and maximum mismatch.We wish to thank Chris Messenger, as well as the members of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration continuous waves group, for useful feedback. KJW, JTW, and JKW were supported by NSF Grant PHY-1806824 and PHY-2110460.application/pdfen-AU© 2022 The authorsgravitational waveslatticesScorpius X-1202210.1088/1361-6382/ac50122022-06-05