MULTI-MESSENGER ASTRONOMY OF GRAVITATIONAL-WAVE SOURCES WITH FLEXIBLE WIDE-AREA RADIO TRANSIENT SURVEYS
- Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 (United States)
- Department of Physics, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061 (United States)
- Department of Physics, The College of New Jersey, Ewing, NJ 08628 (United States)
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque NM, 87131 (United States)
- Department of Chemistry, Lehman College, Bronx, NY 10468 (United States)
- LIGO-California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California CA 91125 (United States)
- Department of Physics, Long Island University, Brooklyn, NY 11201 (United States)
We explore opportunities for multi-messenger astronomy using gravitational waves (GWs) and prompt, transient low-frequency radio emission to study highly energetic astrophysical events. We review the literature on possible sources of correlated emission of GWs and radio transients, highlighting proposed mechanisms that lead to a short-duration, high-flux radio pulse originating from the merger of two neutron stars or from a superconducting cosmic string cusp. We discuss the detection prospects for each of these mechanisms by low-frequency dipole array instruments such as LWA1, the Low Frequency Array and the Murchison Widefield Array. We find that a broad range of models may be tested by searching for radio pulses that, when de-dispersed, are temporally and spatially coincident with a LIGO/Virgo GW trigger within a ∼30 s time window and ∼200–500 deg{sup 2} sky region. We consider various possible observing strategies and discuss their advantages and disadvantages. Uniquely, for low-frequency radio arrays, dispersion can delay the radio pulse until after low-latency GW data analysis has identified and reported an event candidate, enabling a prompt radio signal to be captured by a deliberately targeted beam. If neutron star mergers do have detectable prompt radio emissions, a coincident search with the GW detector network and low-frequency radio arrays could increase the LIGO/Virgo effective search volume by up to a factor of ∼2. For some models, we also map the parameter space that may be constrained by non-detections.
- OSTI ID:
- 22518741
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 812, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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