Search for the optical counterpart of the GW170814 gravitational wave event with the VLT Survey Telescope
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Fecha
2020-02
Profesor/a Guía
Facultad/escuela
Idioma
en
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Editor
Oxford University Press
Nombre de Curso
Licencia CC
Licencia CC
Resumen
We report on the search for the optical counterpart of the gravitational event GW170814, which
was carried out with the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) by the GRAvitational Wave Inaf TeAm.
Observations started 17.5 h after the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory
(LIGO) and Virgo alert and we covered an area of 99 deg2 that encloses ∼ 77 per cent and
∼ 59 per cent of the initial and refined localization probability regions, respectively. A total
of six epochs were secured over nearly two months. The survey reached an average limiting
magnitude of 22 AB mag in the r band. After assuming the model described in Perna, Lazzati &
Farr, that derives as possible optical counterpart of a BBH (binary black hole) event a transient
source declining in about one day, we have computed a survey efficiency of about 5 per cent.
This paper describes the VST observational strategy and the results obtained by our analysis
pipelines developed to search for optical transients in multi-epoch images. We report the
catalogue of the candidates with possible identifications based on light-curve fitting. We have
identified two dozens of SNe, nine AGNs, and one QSO. Nineteen transients characterized by
a single detection were not classified. We have restricted our analysis only to the candidates
that fall into the refined localization map. None out of 39 left candidates could be positively
associated with GW170814. This result implies that the possible emission of optical radiation
from a BBH merger had to be fainter than r ∼ 22 (Loptical ∼ 1.4 × 1042 erg s−1) on a time
interval ranging from a few hours up to two months after the gravitational wave event.
Notas
Palabras clave
gravitational wave – surveys – stars: black holes – transients: black hole mergers.
Citación
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Open Access Volume 492, Issue 2, Pages 1731 - 17541 February 2020