[Thesis] Search for Gravitational Waves Associated With Gamma-ray Bursts During LIGO's Second Observing Run

Document #:

LIGO-P2000352-v1

Document type:

P - Publications

Abstract:

The advanced LIGO and Virgo detectors have recently ushered in the
age of gravitational wave astronomy. In this dissertation we briefly review how
gravitational waves arise from general relativity, how they are produced, and how
they are detected with LIGO. We also review the connection between gravitational
waves and gamma-ray bursts, and review a method used to search for gravitational
waves from gamma-ray triggers. A search for gravitational wave signals associated
with gamma-ray bursts during the second observing run of advanced LIGO and
Virgo is presented. Of the 98 bursts considered, no significant signals were found
except for GW170817 which was found with a p-value of 3.1 × 10 −4 . We report
lower bounds on the distance to these gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), assuming various
signal morphologies. We also describe the physical environment monitor system
used at the LIGO observatories and present a new wide-band RF monitor for that
system.
This dissertation contains previously published co-authored material.

Files in Document:

• final.pdf (7.6 MB)

Topics:

• Data quality / vetoes
• GW Bursts
• Astrophysics / Multi-messenger
• Thesis/Dissertation
• Detector Characterization

Authors:

• Jordan Palamos