Prospects for observing and localizing gravitational-wave transients with advanced LIGO and advanced virgo

Authors

B. P. Abbott, California Institute of TechnologyFollow
R. Abbott, California Institute of TechnologyFollow
T. D. Abbott, Louisiana State UniversityFollow
M. R. Abernathy, California Institute of TechnologyFollow
F. Acernese, Università degli Studi di SalernoFollow
K. Ackley, University of FloridaFollow
C. Adams, LIGO LivingstonFollow
T. Adams, Université Savoie Mont BlancFollow
P. Addesso, Università degli Studi del SannioFollow
R. X. Adhikari, California Institute of TechnologyFollow
V. B. Adya, Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute)Follow
C. Affeldt, Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute)Follow
M. Agathos, FOM-Institute of Subatomic Physics - NIKHEFFollow
K. Agatsuma, FOM-Institute of Subatomic Physics - NIKHEFFollow
N. Aggarwal, LIGO, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyFollow
O. D. Aguiar, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas EspaciaisFollow
A. Ain, Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics IndiaFollow
P. Ajith, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, MumbaiFollow
B. Allen, Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute)Follow
A. Allocca, Università di PisaFollow
P. A. Altin, The Australian National UniversityFollow
D. V. Amariutei, University of FloridaFollow
S. B. Anderson, California Institute of TechnologyFollow
W. G. Anderson, University of Wisconsin-MilwaukeeFollow
K. Arai, California Institute of Technology
M. C. Araya, California Institute of Technology
C. C. Arceneaux, University of Mississippi
J. S. Areeda, California State University, Fullerton
N. Arnaud, Laboratoire de l'Accélérateur Linéaire
K. G. Arun, Chennai Mathematical Institute
G. Ashton, University of Southampton
M. Ast, Universität Hamburg
S. M. Aston, LIGO Livingston

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2-8-2016

Abstract

We present a possible observing scenario for the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo gravitational-wave detectors over the next decade, with the intention of providing information to the astronomy community to facilitate planning for multi-messenger astronomy with gravitational waves. We determine the expected sensitivity of the network to transient gravitational-wave signals, and study the capability of the network to determine the sky location of the source. We report our findings for gravitational-wave transients, with particular focus on gravitational-wave signals from the inspiral of binary neutron-star systems, which are considered the most promising for multi-messenger astronomy. The ability to localize the sources of the detected signals depends on the geographical distribution of the detectors and their relative sensitivity, and 90% credible regions can be as large as thousands of square degrees when only two sensitive detectors are operational. Determining the sky position of a significant fraction of detected signals to areas of 5 deg2to 20 deg2will require at least three detectors of sensitivity within a factor of ~ 2 of each other and with a broad frequency bandwidth. Should the third LIGO detector be relocated to India as expected, a significant fraction of gravitational-wave signals will be localized to a few square degrees by gravitational-wave observations alone.

Publication Source (Journal or Book title)

Living Reviews in Relativity

First Page

1

Last Page

39

Recommended Citation

Abbott, B., Abbott, R., Abbott, T., Abernathy, M., Acernese, F., Ackley, K., Adams, C., Adams, T., Addesso, P., Adhikari, R., Adya, V., Affeldt, C., Agathos, M., Agatsuma, K., Aggarwal, N., Aguiar, O., Ain, A., Ajith, P., Allen, B., Allocca, A., Altin, P., Amariutei, D., Anderson, S., Anderson, W., Arai, K., Araya, M., Arceneaux, C., Areeda, J., Arnaud, N., Arun, K., Ashton, G., Ast, M., & Aston, S. (2016). Prospects for observing and localizing gravitational-wave transients with advanced LIGO and advanced virgo. Living Reviews in Relativity, 19, 1-39. https://doi.org/10.1007/lrr-2016-1