Fermi GBM Observations of LIGO Gravitational Wave event GW150914
Autor: | Connaughton, V., Burns, E., Goldstein, A., Blackburn, L., Briggs, M. S., Zhang, B. -B., Camp, J., Christensen, N., Hui, C. M., Jenke, P., Littenberg, T., McEnery, J. E., Racusin, J., Shawhan, P., Singer, L., Veitch, J., Wilson-Hodge, C. A., Bhat, P. N., Bissaldi, E., Cleveland, W., Fitzpatrick, G., Giles, M. M., Gibby, M. H., von Kienlin, A., Kippen, R. M., McBreen, S., Mailyan, B., Meegan, C. A., Paciesas, W. S., Preece, R. D., Roberts, O., Sparke, L., Stanbro, M., Toelge, K., Veres, P. |
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Rok vydání: | 2016 |
Předmět: | |
Druh dokumentu: | Working Paper |
DOI: | 10.3847/2041-8205/826/1/L6 |
Popis: | With an instantaneous view of 70% of the sky, the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) is an excellent partner in the search for electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational wave (GW) events. GBM observations at the time of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) event GW150914 reveal the presence of a weak transient above 50 keV, 0.4~s after the GW event, with a false alarm probability of 0.0022 (2.9$\sigma$). This weak transient lasting 1 s was not detected by any other instrument and does not appear connected with other previously known astrophysical, solar, terrestrial, or magnetospheric activity. Its localization is ill-constrained but consistent with the direction of GW150914. The duration and spectrum of the transient event are consistent with a weak short Gamma-Ray Burst arriving at a large angle to the direction in which Fermi was pointing, where the GBM detector response is not optimal. If the GBM transient is associated with GW150914, this electromagnetic signal from a stellar mass black hole binary merger is unexpected. We calculate a luminosity in hard X-ray emission between 1~keV and 10~MeV of $1.8^{+1.5}_{-1.0} \times 10^{49}$~erg~s$^{-1}$. Future joint observations of GW events by LIGO/Virgo and Fermi GBM could reveal whether the weak transient reported here is a plausible counterpart to GW150914 or a chance coincidence, and will further probe the connection between compact binary mergers and short Gamma-Ray Bursts. Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJL |
Databáze: | arXiv |
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