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arXiv · 1410.0929

High-energy electromagnetic offline follow-up of LIGO-Virgo gravitational-wave binary coalescence candidate events

Lindy Blackburn·Michael S. Briggs·Jordan Camp·Nelson Christensen·Valerie Connaughton·Peter Jenke·Ronald A. Remillard·John Veitch
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Abstract

We present two different search methods for electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational-wave (GW) events from ground-based detectors using archival NASA high-energy data from the Fermi-GBM and RXTE-ASM instruments. To demonstrate the methods, we use a limited number of representative GW background noise events produced by a search for binary neutron star coalescence over the last two months of the LIGO-Virgo S6/VSR3 joint science run. Time and sky location provided by the GW data trigger a targeted search in the high-energy photon data. We use two custom pipelines: one to search for prompt gamma-ray counterparts in GBM, and the other to search for a variety of X-ray afterglow model signals in ASM. We measure the efficiency of the joint pipelines to weak gamma-ray burst counterparts, and a family of model X-ray afterglows. By requiring a detectable signal in either electromagnetic instrument coincident with a GW event, we are able to reject a large majority of GW candidates. This reduces the signal-to-noise of the loudest surviving GW background event by around 15-20%.

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Lindy Blackburn, Michael S. Briggs, Jordan Camp, Nelson Christensen, Valerie Connaughton, Peter Jenke, Ronald A. Remillard, John Veitch. 2014-10-03. High-energy electromagnetic offline follow-up of LIGO-Virgo gravitational-wave binary coalescence candidate events. https://doi.org/10.1088/0067-0049%2F217%2F1%2F8

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