A Fermi Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor Search for Electromagnetic Signals Coincident with Gravitational-wave Candidates in Advanced LIGO's First Observing Run

Authors

E. Burns, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
A. Goldstein, Huntsville Program Office
C. M. Hui, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
L. Blackburn, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
M. S. Briggs, The University of Alabama in Huntsville
V. Connaughton, Huntsville Program Office
R. Hamburg, The University of Alabama in Huntsville
D. Kocevski, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
P. Veres, Center for Space Plasma and Aeronomic Research
C. A. Wilson-Hodge, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
E. Bissaldi, Politecnico di Bari
W. H. Cleveland, Huntsville Program Office
M. M. Giles, Jacobs Space Exploration Group
B. Mailyan, Center for Space Plasma and Aeronomic Research
C. A. Meegan, Center for Space Plasma and Aeronomic Research
W. A. Paciesas, Huntsville Program Office
S. Poolakkil, The University of Alabama in Huntsville
R. D. Preece, The University of Alabama in Huntsville
J. L. Racusin, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
O. J. Roberts, Huntsville Program Office
A. Von Kienlin, Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics
B. P. Abbott, California Institute of Technology
R. Abbott, California Institute of Technology
T. D. Abbott, Louisiana State University
F. Acernese, Università degli Studi di Salerno
K. Ackley, Monash University
C. Adams, LIGO Livingston
T. Adams, Universite Grenoble Alpes
P. Addesso, Università degli Studi del Sannio
R. X. Adhikari, California Institute of Technology
V. B. Adya, Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute)
C. Affeldt, Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute)
B. Agarwal, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-20-2019

Abstract

We present a search for prompt gamma-ray counterparts to compact binary coalescence gravitational wave (GW) candidates from Advanced LIGO's first observing run (O1). As demonstrated by the multimessenger observations of GW170817/GRB 170817A, electromagnetic and GW observations provide complementary information about the astrophysical source, and in the case of weaker candidates, may strengthen the case for an astrophysical origin. Here we investigate low-significance GW candidates from the O1 compact binary coalescence searches using the Fermi Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor (GBM), leveraging its all sky and broad energy coverage. Candidates are ranked and compared to background to measure the significance. Those with false alarm rates (FARs) of less than 10 -5 Hz (about one per day, yielding a total of 81 candidates) are used as the search sample for gamma-ray follow-up. No GW candidates were found to be coincident with gamma-ray transients independently identified by blind searches of the GBM data. In addition, GW candidate event times were followed up by a separate targeted search of GBM data. Among the resulting GBM events, the two with the lowest FARs were the gamma-ray transient GW150914-GBM presented in Connaughton et al. and a solar flare in chance coincidence with a GW candidate.

Publication Source (Journal or Book title)

Astrophysical Journal

Recommended Citation

Burns, E., Goldstein, A., Hui, C., Blackburn, L., Briggs, M., Connaughton, V., Hamburg, R., Kocevski, D., Veres, P., Wilson-Hodge, C., Bissaldi, E., Cleveland, W., Giles, M., Mailyan, B., Meegan, C., Paciesas, W., Poolakkil, S., Preece, R., Racusin, J., Roberts, O., Kienlin, A., Abbott, B., Abbott, R., Abbott, T., Acernese, F., Ackley, K., Adams, C., Adams, T., Addesso, P., Adhikari, R., Adya, V., Affeldt, C., & Agarwal, B. (2019). A Fermi Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor Search for Electromagnetic Signals Coincident with Gravitational-wave Candidates in Advanced LIGO's First Observing Run. Astrophysical Journal, 871 (1) https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aaf726