Swift Follow-up Observations of Candidate Gravitational-wave Transient Events

Swift Follow-up Observations of Candidate Gravitational-wave Transient Events. Evans, P. A., Aasi, J., Abadie, J., Abbott, B. P., Abbott, R., Adhikari, R. X., Ajith, P., Anderson, S. B., Arai, K., Araya, M. C., Barayoga, J. C. B., Billingsley, G., Black, E., Blackburn, J. K., Bork, R., Brooks, A. F., Cepeda, C., Chalermsongsak, T., Corsi, A., Coyne, D. C., Daudert, B., Dergachev, V., Doravari, S., Driggers, J. C., Ehrens, P., Engel, R., Etzel, T., Fotopoulos, N., Gustafson, E. K., Hanna, C., Heefner, J., Heptonstall, A. W., Hodge, K. A., Ivanov, A., Jacobson, M., James, E., Kalmus, P., Kells, W., Keppel, D. G., King, P. J., Kondrashov, V., Korth, W. Z., Kozak, D., Lazzarini, A., Lindquist, P. E., Litvine, V., Mageswaran, M., Mailand, K., Maros, E., Marx, J. N., McIntyre, G., Meshkov, S., Nash, T., Ogin, G. H., Osthelder, C., Pedraza, M., Phelps, M., Poux, C., Price, L. R., Privitera, S., Reitze, D. H., Robertson, N. A., Rollins, J. G., Sannibale, V., Santamaría, L., Seifert, F., Singer, A., Singer, L., Smith, M. R., Stochino, A., Taylor, R., Torrie, C. I., Vass, S., Villar, A. E., Wallace, L., Whitcomb, S. E., Willems, P. A., Williams, R., Yamamoto, H., Yeaton-Massey, D., Zhang, L., Zweizig, J., Chen, Y., Hong, T., Kaufman, K., Miao, H., Ott, C. D., Somiya, K., Thorne, K. S., Wen, L., Yang, H., Drever, R. W. P., Harms, J., Langley, A., & Weinstein, A. J. Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 203(2):Art. No. 28, American Astronomical Society, December, 2012. o̧pyright 2012 American Astronomical Society. Received 2012 May 25; accepted 2012 October 25; published 2012 November 21. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the United States National Science Foundation for the construction and operation of the LIGO Laboratory, the Science and Technology Facilities Council of the United Kingdom, the Max-Planck- Society, and the State of Niedersachsen/Germany for support of the construction and operation of the GEO600 detector, and the Italian Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare and the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique for the construction and operation of the Virgo detector. The authors also gratefully acknowledge the support of the research by these agencies and by the Australian Research Council, the International Science Linkages program of the Commonwealth of Australia, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research of India, the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare of Italy, the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, the Conselleria d?Economia Hisenda i Innovaci? of the Govern de les Illes Balears, the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter supported by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education, the FOCUS Programme of Foundation for Polish Science, the Royal Society, the Scottish Funding Council, the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance, The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Carnegie Trust, the Leverhulme Trust, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Research Corporation, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. This work was also partially supported through a NASA grant/cooperative agreement number NNX09AL61G to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. P. Evans and J. P. Osborne acknowledge financial support from the UK Space Agency.

Paper abstract bibtex

We present the first multi-wavelength follow-up observations of two candidate gravitational-wave (GW) transient events recorded by LIGO and Virgo in their 2009-2010 science run. The events were selected with low latency by the network of GW detectors (within less than 10 minutes) and their candidate sky locations were observed by the Swift observatory (within 12 hr). Image transient detection was used to analyze the collected electromagnetic data, which were found to be consistent with background. Off-line analysis of the GW data alone has also established that the selected GW events show no evidence of an astrophysical origin; one of them is consistent with background and the other one was a test, part of a "blind injection challenge." With this work we demonstrate the feasibility of rapid follow-ups of GW transients and establish the sensitivity improvement joint electromagnetic and GW observations could bring. This is a first step toward an electromagnetic follow-up program in the regime of routine detections with the advanced GW instruments expected within this decade. In that regime, multi-wavelength observations will play a significant role in completing the astrophysical identification of GW sources. We present the methods and results from this first combined analysis and discuss its implications in terms of sensitivity for the present and future instruments.

@article{caltechauthors36353,
volume = {203},
number = {2},
month = {December},
author = {P. A. Evans and J. Aasi and J. Abadie and B. P. Abbott and R. Abbott and Rana X. Adhikari and P. Ajith and S. B. Anderson and K. Arai and M. C. Araya and J. C. B. Barayoga and G. Billingsley and E. Black and J. K. Blackburn and R. Bork and A. F. Brooks and C. Cepeda and T. Chalermsongsak and A. Corsi and D. C. Coyne and B. Daudert and V. Dergachev and S. Doravari and J. C. Driggers and P. Ehrens and R. Engel and T. Etzel and N. Fotopoulos and E. K. Gustafson and C. Hanna and J. Heefner and A. W. Heptonstall and K. A. Hodge and A. Ivanov and M. Jacobson and E. James and P. Kalmus and W. Kells and D. G. Keppel and P. J. King and V. Kondrashov and W. Z. Korth and D. Kozak and A. Lazzarini and P. E. Lindquist and V. Litvine and M. Mageswaran and K. Mailand and E. Maros and J. N. Marx and G. McIntyre and S. Meshkov and T. Nash and G. H. Ogin and C. Osthelder and M. Pedraza and M. Phelps and C. Poux and L. R. Price and S. Privitera and D. H. Reitze and N. A. Robertson and J. G. Rollins and V. Sannibale and L. Santamar{\'i}a and F. Seifert and A. Singer and L. Singer and M. R. Smith and A. Stochino and R. Taylor and C. I. Torrie and S. Vass and A. E. Villar and L. Wallace and S. E. Whitcomb and P. A. Willems and R. Williams and H. Yamamoto and D. Yeaton-Massey and L. Zhang and J. Zweizig and Y. Chen and T. Hong and K. Kaufman and H. Miao and C. D. Ott and K. Somiya and K. S. Thorne and L. Wen and H. Yang and R. W. P. Drever and J. Harms and A. Langley and Alan J. Weinstein},
note = {{\copyright} 2012 American Astronomical Society. Received 2012 May 25; accepted 2012 October 25; published 2012 November 21. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the United
States National Science Foundation for the construction and operation of the LIGO Laboratory, the Science and Technology
Facilities Council of the United Kingdom, the Max-Planck-
Society, and the State of Niedersachsen/Germany for support
of the construction and operation of the GEO600 detector, and the Italian Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare and the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique for the construction and operation of the Virgo detector. The authors also gratefully acknowledge the support of the research by these agencies and by the Australian Research Council, the International Science Linkages program of the Commonwealth of Australia, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research of India, the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare of Italy, the Spanish Ministerio de Econom{\'i}a y Competitividad, the Conselleria d?Economia
Hisenda i Innovaci? of the Govern de les Illes Balears, the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter supported by
the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education, the FOCUS
Programme of Foundation for Polish Science, the Royal Society, the Scottish Funding Council, the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance, The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Carnegie Trust, the Leverhulme Trust, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Research Corporation, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. This work was also partially supported through a NASA grant/cooperative agreement number NNX09AL61G to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. P. Evans and J. P. Osborne acknowledge financial support from the UK Space Agency. },
title = {Swift Follow-up Observations of Candidate Gravitational-wave Transient Events},
publisher = {American Astronomical Society},
year = {2012},
journal = {Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series},
pages = {Art. No. 28},
keywords = {gravitational waves; ultraviolet: general; X-rays: general},
url = {http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20130114-104018011},
abstract = {We present the first multi-wavelength follow-up observations of two candidate gravitational-wave (GW) transient events recorded by LIGO and Virgo in their 2009-2010 science run. The events were selected with low latency by the network of GW detectors (within less than 10 minutes) and their candidate sky locations were observed by the Swift observatory (within 12 hr). Image transient detection was used to analyze the collected electromagnetic data, which were found to be consistent with background. Off-line analysis of the GW data alone has also established that the selected GW events show no evidence of an astrophysical origin; one of them is consistent with background and the other one was a test, part of a "blind injection challenge." With this work we demonstrate the feasibility of rapid follow-ups of GW transients and establish the sensitivity improvement joint electromagnetic and GW observations could bring. This is a first step toward an electromagnetic follow-up program in the regime of routine detections with the advanced GW instruments expected within this decade. In that regime, multi-wavelength observations will play a significant role in completing the astrophysical identification of GW sources. We present the methods and results from this first combined analysis and discuss its implications in terms of sensitivity for the present and future instruments.}
}

Downloads: 0