Improved methods for detecting gravitational waves associated with short gamma-ray bursts

Williamson, Andrew R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7627-8688, Biwer, C., Fairhurst, Stephen ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8480-1961, Harry, I. W., Macdonald, E., MacLeod, Duncan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1395-8694 and Predoi, Valeriu ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9729-6578 2014. Improved methods for detecting gravitational waves associated with short gamma-ray bursts. Physical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology 90 (12) , -. 10.1103/PhysRevD.90.122004

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Abstract

In the era of second generation ground-based gravitational wave detectors, short gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) will be among the most promising astrophysical events for joint electromagnetic and gravitational wave observation. A targeted, coherent search for gravitational wave compact binary merger signals in coincidence with short GRBs was developed and used to analyze data from the first generation LIGO and Virgo instruments. In this paper, we present improvements to this search that enhance our ability to detect gravitational wave counterparts to short GRBs. Specifically, we introduce an improved method for estimating the gravitational wave background to obtain the event significance required to make detections; implement a method of tiling extended sky regions, as required when searching for signals associated to poorly localized GRBs from the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor or the InterPlanetary Network; and incorporate astrophysical knowledge about the beaming of GRB emission to restrict the search parameter space. We describe the implementation of these enhancements and demonstrate how they improve the ability to observe binary merger gravitational wave signals associated with short GRBs. A targeted, coherent GRB search provides a 25% increase in distance sensitivity, or a doubling of the event rate, for well-localized GRBs when compared with a nontargeted, coincident analysis.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Physics and Astronomy Advanced Research Computing @ Cardiff (ARCCA)
Subjects:	Q Science > QC Physics
Publisher:	American Physical Society
ISSN:	1550-7998
Last Modified:	27 Oct 2022 10:17
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/69592

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