Electromagnetic Counterparts of Binary Black Hole Mergers

Document #:

LIGO-T1700260-v2

Document type:

T - Technical notes

Abstract:

The Advanced LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) detectors have successfully detected gravitational wave signals from four binary black hole (BBH) mergers, GW150914, LVT151012, GW151226, and GW170104. These discoveries have prompted follow-up campaigns to search for any electromagnetic (EM) counterparts to the gravitational wave transients, which have yielded no strong candidates, except for the detection of a weak gamma ray transient 0.4 seconds after GW150914 in the sky localization of this gravitational wave event. Our motivation for this project is therefore to study various models of binary black hole mergers to predict whether or not any EM emission should be expected, and if so, what kind, how much, and when. While we currently do not believe that BBH mergers produce EM counterparts, the results of this study will help assess the prospects of these campaigns given our current observing limitations and will ultimately be an important step forward for future work in multimessenger astronomy.
2017 SURF project for Cierra Coughlin

Files in Document:

• SURFfinal_Coughlin.pdf (3.0 MB)

Other Files:

• SURFfinalpresentation.key (10.1 MB)
• SURFfinalpresentation.pdf (2.3 MB)

Topics:

• Compact Binaries
• Astrophysics / Multi-messenger

Authors:

• Cierra Coughlin
• Alexander Urban

Keywords:

SURF17

Referenced by:

• LIGO-T1800048: Final reports from LIGO SURF program, Summer 2017