The JAGWAR Prowls LIGO/Virgo O3 Paper I: Radio Search of a Possible Multi-Messenger Counterpart of the Binary Black Hole Merger Candidate S191216ap

Abstract

We present a sensitive search with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) for the radio counterpart of the gravitational wave candidate S191216ap, classified as a binary black hole merger, and suggested to be a possible multi-messenger event, based on the detection of a high energy neutrino and a TeV photon. We carried out a blind search at C band (4-8 GHz) over 0.3 deg² of the gamma-ray counterpart of S191216ap reported by the High-Altitude Water Cherenkov Observatory (HAWC). Our search, spanning three epochs over 130 days post-merger and having mean source-detection threshold of 75μJy/beam (4σ), yielded 5 variable sources associated with AGN activity and no definitive counterpart of S191216ap. We find <2% (3.0±1.3%) of the persistent radio sources at 6 GHz to be variable on a timescale of <1 week (week--months), consistent with previous radio variability studies. Our 4σ radio luminosity upper limit of ∼1.2×10²⁸ erg s⁻¹ Hz⁻¹ on the afterglow of S191216ap, within the HAWC error region, is 5-10 times deeper than previous BBH radio afterglow searches. Comparing this upper limit with theoretical expectations given by Perna et al. for putative jets launched by BBH mergers, for on-axis jets having energy ≃10⁴⁹ erg, we can rule out jet opening angles ≲20 degrees (assuming that the counterpart lies within the 1σ HAWC region that we observed).