Implementation and testing of the first prompt search for gravitational wave transients with electromagnetic counterparts

Abadie, J., Davies, Geraint, Dent, Thomas Edward, Edwards, Mark, Fairhurst, Stephen ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8480-1961, Harry, Ian William, Jones, Gareth, Kamaretsos, Ioannis, McKechan, David, Messenger, Christopher, Nuttall, Laura ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8599-8791, Predoi, Valeriu ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9729-6578, Sathyaprakash, Bangalore ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3845-7586, Schutz, Bernard Frederick ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9487-6983, Sutton, Patrick J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1614-3922 and Veitch, John 2012. Implementation and testing of the first prompt search for gravitational wave transients with electromagnetic counterparts. Astronomy & Astrophysics 539 , A124. 10.1051/0004-6361/201118219

Preview

PDF - Published Version Download (864kB) | Preview

Abstract

Aims. A transient astrophysical event observed in both gravitational wave (GW) and electromagnetic (EM) channels would yield rich scientific rewards. A first program initiating EM follow-ups to possible transient GW events has been developed and exercised by the LIGO and Virgo community in association with several partners. In this paper, we describe and evaluate the methods used to promptly identify and localize GW event candidates and to request images of targeted sky locations. Methods. During two observing periods (Dec. 17, 2009 to Jan. 8, 2010 and Sep. 2 to Oct. 20, 2010), a low-latency analysis pipeline was used to identify GW event candidates and to reconstruct maps of possible sky locations. A catalog of nearby galaxies and Milky Way globular clusters was used to select the most promising sky positions to be imaged, and this directional information was delivered to EM observatories with time lags of about thirty minutes. A Monte Carlo simulation has been used to evaluate the low-latency GW pipeline’s ability to reconstruct source positions correctly. Results. For signals near the detection threshold, our low-latency algorithms often localized simulated GW burst signals to tens of square degrees, while neutron star/neutron star inspirals and neutron star/black hole inspirals were localized to a few hundred square degrees. Localization precision improves for moderately stronger signals. The correct sky location of signals well above threshold and originating from nearby galaxies may be observed with ~50% or better probability with a few pointings of wide-field telescopes.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Physics and Astronomy
Subjects:	Q Science > QB Astronomy
Additional Information:	Please follow links to publisher's page for a full list of contributors to this paper. Pdf uploaded in accordance with publisher's policy at http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/issn/0004-6361/ (accessed 27/02/2014)
Publisher:	EDP Sciences
ISSN:	0004-6361
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	30 March 2016
Last Modified:	10 Mar 2024 17:34
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/47547

Citation Data

Cited 85 times in Scopus. View in Scopus. Powered By Scopus® Data

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item