Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS April Meeting 2018
Volume 63, Number 4
Saturday–Tuesday, April 14–17, 2018; Columbus, Ohio
Session H17: Electromagnetic Follow-Up of Gravitational-Wave Observations |
Hide Abstracts |
Sponsoring Units: DAP DGRAV Chair: Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz, Lick Observatory Room: B234-235 |
Sunday, April 15, 2018 10:45AM - 10:57AM |
H17.00001: Gravitational Wave and Multimessenger Searches with AMON James DeLaunay The Astrophysical Multimessenger Observatory Network (AMON) is connecting observatories around the world in order to enable real-time coincidence searches across all four astrophysical messengers (neutrinos, cosmic rays, photons, and gravitational waves). AMON analyses deliberately extend into the "sub-threshold" regimes of these experiments, and are conceived so as to enable near real-time alerts, and rapid follow-up observations, in search of associated transient or variable counterparts. Current analysis efforts include a coincidence search using sub-threshold gravitational wave events from LIGO and sub-threshold gamma-ray data from high-energy satellites. This search is designed to be applied in the future to aLIGO + VIRGO real-time sub-threshold event streams so as to generate real-time multimessenger alerts and enable rapid follow-up observations. In this presentation I will give preliminary details about the analysis being used to search for coincident gravitational wave + gamma-ray (“GW + gamma”) transients, with a specific focus on using sub-threshold gamma-ray data from Swift's Burst Alert Telescope. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, April 15, 2018 10:57AM - 11:09AM |
H17.00002: The Low-Latency Detection of GW170817 Cody Messick At 12:41:04 UTC on August 17th, 2017, gravitational waves from the merger of a binary neutron star passed through the LIGO and Virgo detectors, an event now known as GW170817. 1.7 seconds later, a short gamma-ray burst, GRB 170817A, was observed by Fermi GBM. The joint detection of GW170817 and GRB 170817A led to a several week campaign with over 70 astronomical partners that identified electromagnetic counterparts in the x-ray, ultraviolet, optical, infrared, and radio bands. In this presentation, I will discuss the initial low-latency gravitational wave detection of GW170817 by the GstLAL-based inspiral pipeline. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, April 15, 2018 11:09AM - 11:21AM |
H17.00003: The Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor Targeted Search Daniel Kocevski The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope’s Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) is currently the most prolific detector of Gamma-ray Bursts (GRBs). Recently the detection rate of short GRBs (sGRBs) has been increased dramatically through the use of ground-based searches to analyze untriggered GBM continuous time tagged event (CTTE) data. These offline searches can employ sophisticated analysis methods that are not achievable in real time due to the limited computational resources available on the spacecraft. Here we outline a method developed by the GBM team to search CTTE data for transient events in temporal coincidence with a LIGO/Virgo compact binary coalescence trigger. This targeted search operates by looking for a coherent signal in all 14 GBM detectors by using spectral templates that are convolved with the GBM detector responses. I will review recent improvements to the targeted search pipeline and discuss its enhanced capabilities at detecting weak transient signals associated with LIGO/Virgo triggers in the upcoming O3 sceince run. I will also discuss the role of the targeted search in finding a possible GBM counterpart to GW150914 and will compare that signal to other known astrophysical transients that can be recovered from the untriggered GBM data using this method. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, April 15, 2018 11:21AM - 11:33AM |
H17.00004: Time-domain astronomy with the Fermi GBM in the Multimessenger Era C. Michelle Hui The Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) is an all-sky monitoring instrument sensitive to energies from 8 keV to 40 MeV. Its wide field of view and high uptime is ideal for observing the gamma-ray sky simultaneously with gravitational wave and neutrino observatories such as LIGO and IceCube. This collaborative work proved successful by the joint gravitational wave and gamma-ray detections from the binary neutron star merger event GW170817 and GRB 170817A. In addition to the 240 gamma-ray burst (GRB) detections per year, GBM also detects solar flares, terrestrial gamma-ray flashes, and Galactic transients by using the Earth occultation technique and epoch-folding for periodic sources. Since July 2017, candidates from the untargeted search, which searches the high-time-resolution continuous data for weak transients below the threshold of the onboard trigger, have been published by the GCN as Fermi-GBM Subthreshold transients notices. This search finds about 80 short GRBs per year, in addition to the 40 per year triggered on-orbit. Fermi-GBM continues to detect many types of transients since launching in 2008 and is well suited for providing electromagnetic followup in the era of multi-messenger astronomy. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, April 15, 2018 11:33AM - 11:45AM |
H17.00005: Real-time search for coincidence of sub-threshold events between HAWC and LIGO-Virgo Monica Seglar-Arroyo The observation of several binary black hole mergers (BHM) and a neutron star merger (NSM) in the last two years by LIGO-Virgo set the beginning of gravitational wave astronomy. The detection of an electromagnetic signal by Fermi-GBM, temporally and spatially coincident with the gravitational wave coming from a NSM detected by LIGO-Virgo, stands as the first step to multi-messenger astronomy. It enabled a unprecedented follow-up campaign of the event that allowed the identification and monitoring of the source. Several of these events are expected in the next observation run of LIGO-Vigo, starting in Fall 2018. The HAWC experiment is a large field of view and large duty cycle observatory which is sensitive to very high energy gamma rays between 0.3-100TeV. These conditions, together with the LIGO-Virgo horizon for NSM, make HAWC a suitable instrument for the search of VHE signals from such events. In this contribution, we will discuss the exploitation of sub-threshold events and the enhancement of joint detection rates by using astrophysical distribution of galaxies in the next observation run O3. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, April 15, 2018 11:45AM - 11:57AM |
H17.00006: Low-Frequency Radio Searches Supporting Gravitational-Wave Detection Timothy Dolch, Teviet Creighton, Louis Dartez, Frederick Jenet, Fronefield Crawford, Jing Luo, James Murray We report on several low-frequency radio searches that aid the detection of gravitational waves (GWs). First, we present results of a pulsar search at 327-MHz with the Arecibo Observatory in the Galactic anti-center, a part of the sky in which any pulsar discoveries are especially important for the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) pulsar timing array. Second, we report on the Low Frequency All-Sky Monitor, an array of Long-Wavelength Array (LWA) antenna clusters distributed at multiple stations across the North American continent. Sensitive at the LWA radio frequencies of 10—88 MHz, the telescope is dedicated to monitoring the sky for bright radio transients associated with GW bursts. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, April 15, 2018 11:57AM - 12:09PM |
H17.00007: Investigating Gravitational Wave Multi-Messenger Sources for Pulsar Timing Arrays Joseph Simon, Sarah Burke-Spolaor Pulsar Timing Arrays (PTAs) are galactic-scale low-frequency (nHz - $\mu$Hz) gravitational wave (GW) observatories, which aim to directly detect GWs from binary supermassive black holes (SMBHs) ($>10^{7}$ M$_\odot$). Binary SMBHs are predicted products of galaxy mergers, and are a crucial step in galaxy formation theories. The inspiral of binary SMBHs creates extended interaction between the black holes and their host galaxy, and there is the potential for many electromagnetic tracers to accompany the binary's evolution. This talk will highlight work incorporating models of electromagnetic radiation from binary SMBHs emitting GWs in the PTA frequency range to investigate the potential for jointly detecting a binary's electromagnetic and gravitational radiation. The detection of a single `multi-messenger' source would provide a unique window into a pivotal stage of galaxy evolution, and would revolutionize the understanding of late-stage galaxy evolution. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, April 15, 2018 12:09PM - 12:21PM |
H17.00008: Optical follow-up of GW170814 with the Dark Energy Camera Zoheyr Doctor In recent years, mergers of two black holes have become a staple of astrophysics, allowing a new look at the universe. With the completion of a three-detector network of interferometers, the binary black hole merger GW170814 was localized to a smaller region than any previous merger, allowing optical follow-up of much of the probable sky area. In this talk, I will describe electromagnetic follow-up of binary black hole merger GW170814 with the Dark Energy Camera by the DECam GW follow-up program and DES-GW. I will present the analysis strategies used to process the data and preliminary results from the analysis. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, April 15, 2018 12:21PM - 12:33PM |
H17.00009: On the Progenitor of Binary Neutron Star Merger GW170817 Michael Zevin The groundbreaking observation of a neutron star merger in both gravitational waves and electromagnetic radiation enabled the first multi-messenger constraints on the progenitor of a compact binary. By combining the mass measurements from gravitational waves with the host galaxy properties and offset of merger from electromagnetic observations, it becomes possible to place constraints on the progenitor birth location within its host galaxy, masses and orbital properties of the progenitor system prior to the second supernova, and physical mechanisms governing the supernova explosion that created the compact binary. To achieve such inference, we simulate millions of potential progenitor systems and follow the three-dimensional kinematic evolution from binary neutron star birth to the merger time, including the effect of the supernova explosion and pre-supernova galactic motion. We find progenitor constraints comparable to those for binary neutron stars in the Milky Way. These constraints are insensitive to the galaxy’s star formation history, provided the stellar populations are older than 1 Gyr. [Preview Abstract] |
Follow Us |
Engage
Become an APS Member |
My APS
Renew Membership |
Information for |
About APSThe American Physical Society (APS) is a non-profit membership organization working to advance the knowledge of physics. |
© 2024 American Physical Society
| All rights reserved | Terms of Use
| Contact Us
Headquarters
1 Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740-3844
(301) 209-3200
Editorial Office
100 Motor Pkwy, Suite 110, Hauppauge, NY 11788
(631) 591-4000
Office of Public Affairs
529 14th St NW, Suite 1050, Washington, D.C. 20045-2001
(202) 662-8700