Search for gravitational wave signals associated with gamma-ray bursts during the second observing run of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo

Document #:

LIGO-P1900034-v6

Document type:

P - Publications

Abstract:

We present the results of targeted searches for gravitational wave transients associated with gamma-ray bursts during the second observing run of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo, which took place from November 2016 to August 2017. We have analyzed 98 gamma-ray bursts using an unmodeled search method that searches for generic transient gravitational waves and 42 with a modeled search method that targets compact-binary mergers as progenitors of short gamma-ray bursts. Both methods clearly detect the previously reported binary merger signal GW170817, with p-values of <9.38 × 10−6 (modeled) and 3.1 × 10−4 (unmodeled). We find no evidence of associated gravitational-wave signals for any of the other gamma-ray bursts analyzed, and therefore report lower bounds on the distance to each of these, assuming various source types and signal morphologies. Using our final modeled search results, short gamma-ray burst observations, and assuming binary neutron star progenitors, we place bounds on the rate of short gamma-ray bursts as a function of redshift for z ≤ 1 and estimate 0.07–1.80 detections for the 2019-20 LIGO-Virgo observing run and 0.15–3.90 joint detections per year when current gravitational-wave detectors are operating at design sensitivities.

Files in Document:

• o2_grb.pdf (795.4 kB)

Topics:

• Astrophysics / Multi-messenger
• GW Bursts
• Compact Binaries

Author Groups:

• LVC

Notes and Changes:

Version for arXiv upload