Submitting Campus
Prescott
Department
Physics and Astronomy
Document Type
Article
Publication/Presentation Date
6-1-2017
Abstract/Description
We present the results of the search for gravitational waves (GWs) associated with γ-ray bursts detected during the first observing run of the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO). We find no evidence of a GW signal for any of the 41 γ-ray bursts for which LIGO data are available with sufficient duration. For all γ-ray bursts, we place lower bounds on the distance to the source using the optimistic assumption that GWs with an energy of ${10}^{-2}{M}_{\odot }{c}^{2}$ were emitted within the $16$–$500$ Hz band, and we find a median 90% confidence limit of 71 Mpc at 150 Hz. For the subset of 19 short/hard γ-ray bursts, we place lower bounds on distance with a median 90% confidence limit of 90 Mpc for binary neutron star (BNS) coalescences, and 150 and 139 Mpc for neutron star–black hole coalescences with spins aligned to the orbital angular momentum and in a generic configuration, respectively. These are the highest distance limits ever achieved by GW searches. We also discuss in detail the results of the search for GWs associated with GRB 150906B, an event that was localized by the InterPlanetary Network near the local galaxy NGC 3313, which is at a luminosity distance of $54$ Mpc (z = 0.0124). Assuming the γ-ray emission is beamed with a jet half-opening angle $\leqslant 30^\circ $, we exclude a BNS and a neutron star–black hole in NGC 3313 as the progenitor of this event with confidence >99%. Further, we exclude such progenitors up to a distance of 102 Mpc and 170 Mpc, respectively.
Publication Title
The Astrophysical Journal
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aa6c47
Publisher
Institute of Physics
Required Publisher’s Statement
Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
Scholarly Commons Citation
Abbott, B. P., Gill, K., Hughey, B., Pratt, J. W., Rhoades, E., Schmidt, E., Schwalbe, S. G., Szczepańczyk, M. J., Zanolin, M., & al., e. (2017). Search for Gravitational Waves Associated with Gamma-Ray Bursts During the First Advanced LIGO Observing Run and Implications for the Origin of GRB 150906B. The Astrophysical Journal, 451(2). https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aa6c47
