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Title: X-RAY TRANSIENTS IN THE ADVANCED LIGO/VIRGO HORIZON

Journal Article · · Astrophysical Journal
 [1]; ; ;  [2];  [3]; ;  [4]
  1. LIGO-California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)
  2. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Mail Code 663, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)
  3. California Institute of Technology, Astronomy Department, Mail Code 249-17, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)
  4. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Mail Code 661, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)

Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo will be all-sky monitors for merging compact objects within a few hundred megaparsecs. Finding the electromagnetic counterparts to these events will require an understanding of the transient sky at low redshift (z < 0.1). We performed a systematic search for extragalactic, low redshift, transient events in the XMM-Newton Slew Survey. In a flux limited sample, we found that highly variable objects comprised 10% of the sample, and that of these, 10% were spatially coincident with cataloged optical galaxies. This led to 4 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup -4} transients per square degree above a flux threshold of 3 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup -12} erg cm{sup -2} s{sup -1} (0.2-2 keV) which might be confused with LIGO/Virgo counterparts. This represents the first extragalactic measurement of the soft X-ray transient rate within the Advanced LIGO/Virgo horizon. Our search revealed six objects that were spatially coincident with previously cataloged galaxies, lacked evidence for optical active galactic nuclei, displayed high luminosities {approx}10{sup 43} erg s{sup -1}, and varied in flux by more than a factor of 10 when compared with the ROSAT All-Sky Survey. At least four of these displayed properties consistent with previously observed tidal disruption events.

OSTI ID:
22133955
Journal Information:
Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 774, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English