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Multi-messenger Observations of a Binary Neutron Star Merger

Abbott, B. P. and Abbott, R. and Adhikari, R. X. and Ananyeva, A. and Anderson, S. B. and Appert, S. and Arai, K. and Araya, M. C. and Barayoga, J. C. and Barish, B. C. and Berger, B. K. and Billingsley, G. and Biscans, S and Blackburn, J. K. and Blair, C. D. and Bork, R. and Brooks, A. F. and Brunett, S. and Cahillane, C. and Callister, T. A. and Cepeda, C. B. and Coughlin, M. W. and Couvares, P. and Coyne, D. C. and Ehrens, P. and Eichholz, J. and Etzel, T. and Feicht, J. and Fries, E. M. and Gossan, S. E. and Gushwa, K. E. and Gustafson, E. K. and Heptonstall, A. W. and Isi, M. and Kamai, B. and Kanner, J. B. and Kondrashov, V. and Korth, W. Z. and Kozak, D. B. and Lazzarini, A. and Markowitz, A. and Maros, E. and Massinger, T. J. and Matichard, F. and McIntyre, G. and McIver, J. and Meshkov, S. and Nevin, L. and Pedraza, M. and Perreca, A. and Quintero, E. A. and Reitze, D. H. and Robertson, N. A. and Rollins, J. G. and Sachdev, S. and Sanchez, E. J. and Sanchez, L. E. and Schmidt, P. and Smith, R. J. E. and Taylor, R. and Torrie, C. I. and Tso, R. and Urban, A. L. and Vajente, G. and Vass, S. and Venugopalan, G. and Wade, A. R. and Wallace, L. and Weinstein, A. J. and Whitcomb, S. E. and Williams, R. D. and Willis, J. L. and Wipf, C. C. and Xiao, S. and Yamamoto, H. and Zhang, L. and Zucker, M. E. and Zweizig, J. and Barkett, K. and Blackman, J. and Chen, Y. and Ma, Y. and Pang, B. and Scheel, M. and Thorne, K. S. and Varma, V. (2017) Multi-messenger Observations of a Binary Neutron Star Merger. Astrophysical Journal Letters, 848 (2). L12. ISSN 2041-8205. doi:10.3847/2041-8213/aa91c9. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20171016-084136387

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Abstract

On 2017 August 17 a binary neutron star coalescence candidate (later designated GW170817) with merger time 12:41:04 UTC was observed through gravitational waves by the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. The Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor independently detected a gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) with a time delay of ~ 1.7 s with respect to the merger time. From the gravitational-wave signal, the source was initially localized to a sky region of 31 deg^2 at a luminosity distance of 40^(+8)_(-8) Mpc and with component masses consistent with neutron stars. The component masses were later measured to be in the range 0.86 to 2.26. M⊙. An extensive observing campaign was launched across the electromagnetic spectrum leading to the discovery of a bright optical transient (SSS17a, now with the IAU identification of AT 2017gfo) in NGC 4993 (at ~40 Mpc) less than 11 hours after the merger by the One-Meter, Two Hemisphere (1M2H) team using the 1 m Swope Telescope. The optical transient was independently detected by multiple teams within an hour. Subsequent observations targeted the object and its environment. Early ultraviolet observations revealed a blue transient that faded within 48 hours. Optical and infrared observations showed a redward evolution over ~10 days. Following early non-detections, X-ray and radio emission were discovered at the transient's position ~9 and ~16 days, respectively, after the merger. Both the X-ray and radio emission likely arise from a physical process that is distinct from the one that generates the UV/optical/near-infrared emission. No ultra-high-energy gamma-rays and no neutrino candidates consistent with the source were found in follow-up searches. These observations support the hypothesis that GW170817 was produced by the merger of two neutron stars in NGC 4993 followed by a short gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) and a kilonova/macronova powered by the radioactive decay of r-process nuclei synthesized in the ejecta.


Item Type:Article
Related URLs:
URLURL TypeDescription
https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/aa91c9DOIArticle
http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/aa91c9PublisherArticle
https://arxiv.org/abs/1710.05833arXivDiscussion Paper
ORCID:
AuthorORCID
Adhikari, R. X.0000-0002-5731-5076
Arai, K.0000-0001-8916-8915
Billingsley, G.0000-0002-4141-2744
Biscans, S0000-0002-9635-7527
Blackburn, J. K.0000-0002-3838-2986
Brooks, A. F.0000-0003-4295-792X
Callister, T. A.0000-0001-9892-177X
Coughlin, M. W.0000-0002-8262-2924
Coyne, D. C.0000-0002-6427-3222
Gossan, S. E.0000-0002-8138-9198
Isi, M.0000-0001-8830-8672
Kamai, B.0000-0001-6521-9351
Kanner, J. B.0000-0001-8115-0577
Korth, W. Z.0000-0003-3527-1348
Kozak, D. B.0000-0003-3118-8950
Massinger, T. J.0000-0002-3429-5025
McIver, J.0000-0003-0316-1355
Sachdev, S.0000-0002-2432-7070
Tso, R.0000-0003-4464-0117
Vajente, G.0000-0002-7656-6882
Weinstein, A. J.0000-0002-0928-6784
Williams, R. D.0000-0002-9145-8580
Zhang, L.0000-0002-0898-787X
Zucker, M. E.0000-0002-2544-1596
Zweizig, J.0000-0002-1521-3397
Blackman, J.0000-0002-7113-0289
Chen, Y.0000-0002-9730-9463
Ma, Y.0000-0001-7192-4874
Pang, B.0000-0002-5697-2162
Varma, V.0000-0002-9994-1761
Additional Information:© 2017 The American Astronomical Society. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI. Received 2017 October 3; revised 2017 October 6; accepted 2017 October 6; published 2017 October 16. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the United States National Science Foundation (NSF) for the construction and operation of the LIGO Laboratory and Advanced LIGO as well as the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) of the United Kingdom, the Max-Planck-Society (MPS), and the State of Niedersachsen/Germany for support of the construction of Advanced LIGO and construction and operation of the GEO600 detector. Additional support for advanced LIGO was provided by the Australian Research Council. The authors gratefully acknowledge the Italian Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter supported by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, for the construction and operation of the Virgo detector and the creation and support of the EGO consortium. The authors also gratefully acknowledge research support from these agencies as well as by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research of India, the Department of Science and Technology, India, the Science & Engineering Research Board (SERB), India, the Ministry of Human Resource Development, India, the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación, the Vicepresidència i Conselleria d'Innovació Recerca i Turisme and the Conselleria d'Educació i Universitat del Govern de les Illes Balears, the Conselleria d'Educació Investigació Cultura i Esport de la Generalitat Valenciana, the National Science Centre of Poland, the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, the Russian Science Foundation, the European Commission, the European Regional Development Funds (ERDF), the Royal Society, the Scottish Funding Council, the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance, the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (OTKA), the Lyon Institute of Origins (LIO), the National Research, Development and Innovation Office Hungary (NKFI), the National Research Foundation of Korea, Industry Canada and the Province of Ontario through the Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation, the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council Canada, the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovations, and Communications, the International Center for Theoretical Physics South American Institute for Fundamental Research (ICTP-SAIFR), the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), the China National Space Administration (CNSA) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (MOST), the Leverhulme Trust, the Research Corporation, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), Taiwan and the Kavli Foundation. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the NSF, STFC, MPS, INFN, CNRS, and the State of Niedersachsen/Germany for provision of computational resources. The MAXI team acknowledges the support by JAXA, RIKEN, and MEXT KAKENHI grant number JP 17H06362. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. The European VLBI Network is a joint facility of independent European, African, Asian, and North American radio astronomy institutes. Scientific results from data presented in this publication are derived from the following EVN project code: RP029. e-MERLIN is a National Facility operated by the University of Manchester at Jodrell Bank Observatory on behalf of STFC. The collaboration between LIGO/Virgo and EVN/e-MERLIN is part of a project that has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 653477. We thank Britt Griswold (NASA/GSFC) for graphic arts. P.G.J. acknowledges ERC–Consolidator grant No. 647208. We thank the GMRT staff for prompt scheduling of these observations. The GMRT is run by the National Center for Radio Astrophysics of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. INAF, Italian Institute of Astrophysics ASI, Italian Space Agency. This work is part of the research program Innovational Research Incentives Scheme (Vernieuwingsimpuls), which is financed by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research through the NWO VIDI grant No. 639.042.612-Nissanke and NWO TOP grant No. 62002444–Nissanke. We thank ESO for granting full access to all the LVC MoU partners of the observations of GW170817 obtained with NACO and VISIR under the Observatory program 60.A-9392.
Group:LIGO, Astronomy Department
Funders:
Funding AgencyGrant Number
NSFUNSPECIFIED
Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)UNSPECIFIED
Max-Planck SocietyUNSPECIFIED
State of Niedersachsen/GermanyUNSPECIFIED
Australian Research CouncilUNSPECIFIED
Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN)UNSPECIFIED
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)UNSPECIFIED
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO)UNSPECIFIED
Council of Scientific and Industrial Research of IndiaUNSPECIFIED
Department of Science and Technology (India)UNSPECIFIED
Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB)UNSPECIFIED
Ministry of Human Resource Development (India)UNSPECIFIED
Agencia Estatal de InvestigaciónUNSPECIFIED
Vicepresidència i Conselleria d’Innovació Recerca i TurismeUNSPECIFIED
Conselleria d’Educació i Universitat del Govern de les Illes BalearsUNSPECIFIED
Conselleria d’Educació Investigació Cultura i Esport de la Generalitat ValencianaUNSPECIFIED
National Science Centre (Poland)UNSPECIFIED
Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)UNSPECIFIED
Russian Foundation for Basic ResearchUNSPECIFIED
Russian Science FoundationUNSPECIFIED
European CommissionUNSPECIFIED
European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)UNSPECIFIED
Royal SocietyUNSPECIFIED
Scottish Funding CouncilUNSPECIFIED
Scottish Universities Physics AllianceUNSPECIFIED
Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (OTKA)UNSPECIFIED
Lyon Institute of Origins (LIO)UNSPECIFIED
National Research, Development and Innovation Office Hungary (NKFI)UNSPECIFIED
National Research Foundation of KoreaUNSPECIFIED
Industry CanadaUNSPECIFIED
Province of Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and InnovationUNSPECIFIED
Natural Science and Engineering Research Council Canada (NSERC)UNSPECIFIED
Canadian Institute for Advanced ResearchUNSPECIFIED
Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia, Inovação e ComunicaçãoUNSPECIFIED
International Center for Theoretical Physics South American Institute for Fundamental Research (ICTP-SAIFR)UNSPECIFIED
Research Grants Council of Hong KongUNSPECIFIED
National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)UNSPECIFIED
China National Space Administration (CNSA)UNSPECIFIED
Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)UNSPECIFIED
Ministry of Science and Technology (Taipei)UNSPECIFIED
Leverhulme TrustUNSPECIFIED
Research CorporationUNSPECIFIED
Kavli FoundationUNSPECIFIED
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)UNSPECIFIED
RIKENUNSPECIFIED
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT)JP 17H06362
European Research Council (ERC)653477
European Research Council (ERC)647208
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO)639.042.612-Nissanke
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO)62002444-Nissanke
Subject Keywords:gravitational waves – stars: neutron
Issue or Number:2
DOI:10.3847/2041-8213/aa91c9
Record Number:CaltechAUTHORS:20171016-084136387
Persistent URL:https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20171016-084136387
Official Citation:B. P. Abbott et al 2017 ApJL 848 L12
Usage Policy:No commercial reproduction, distribution, display or performance rights in this work are provided.
ID Code:82362
Collection:CaltechAUTHORS
Deposited By: Tony Diaz
Deposited On:16 Oct 2017 16:05
Last Modified:15 Nov 2021 19:49

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