Outlook for detection of GW inspirals by GRB-triggered searches in the advanced detector era
Abstract
Short, hard gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are believed to originate from the coalescence of two neutron stars (NSs) or a NS and a black hole (BH). If this scenario is correct, then short GRBs will be accompanied by the emission of strong gravitational waves (GWs), detectable by GW observatories such as LIGO, Virgo, KAGRA, and LIGO-India. As compared with blind, all-sky, all-time GW searches, externally triggered searches for GW counterparts to short GRBs have the advantages of both significantly reduced detection threshold due to known time and sky location and enhanced GW amplitude because of face-on orientation. Based on the distribution of signal-to-noise ratios in candidate compact binary coalescence events in the most recent joint LIGO-Virgo data, our analytic estimates, and our Monte Carlo simulations, we find an effective sensitive volume for GRB-triggered searches that is ≈2 times greater than for an all-sky, all-time search. For NS-NS systems, a jet angle θ_j=20°, a gamma-ray satellite field of view of 10% of the sky, and priors with generally precessing spin, this doubles the number of NS-NS short-GRB and NS-BH short-GRB associations, to ∼3–4% of all detections of NS-NSs and NS-BHs. We also investigate the power of tests for statistical excesses in lists of subthreshold events, and show that these are unlikely to reveal a subthreshold population until finding GW associations to short GRBs is already routine. Finally, we provide useful formulas for calculating the prior distribution of GW amplitudes from a compact binary coalescence, for a given GW detector network and given sky location.
Additional Information
© 2013 American Physical Society. Received 16 October 2012; published 22 March 2013. The authors thank Alan Weinstein and Michal Was for comments on the manuscript, and Neil Gehrels for updating us on GRB missions. LIGO was constructed by the California Institute of Technology and Massachusetts Institute of Technology with funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and operates under cooperative agreement No. PHY-0107417. L. S. is supported by the NSF through a Graduate Research Fellowship, while A. D. is supported by NSF Grants No. PHY-1067985 and No. PHY-0757937. C. C.'s work was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. C. C. also gratefully acknowledges support from NSF Grant No. PHY1068881. This paper has LIGO Document No. LIGO-P1200113- v7.Attached Files
Published - PhysRevD.87.064033.pdf
Submitted - 1210.3095v4.pdf
Files
Name | Size | Download all |
---|---|---|
md5:c504263bc58483d270260c4a755a5c9c
|
474.7 kB | Preview Download |
md5:da41162f141f1d75126671034d4cb6f2
|
882.2 kB | Preview Download |
Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 38140
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20130426-145147554
- NSF Cooperative Agreement
- PHY-0107417
- NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
- NSF
- PHY-1067985
- NSF
- PHY-0757937
- NASA/JPL/Caltech
- NSF
- PHY1068881
- Created
-
2013-04-26Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2021-11-09Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- TAPIR
- Other Numbering System Name
- LIGO Document No.
- Other Numbering System Identifier
- LIGO-P1200113- v7