XMM-NEWTON SLEW SURVEY OBSERVATIONS OF THE GRAVITATIONAL WAVE EVENT GW150914
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 8800 Greenbelt Rd, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Leicester University, Leicester LE1 7RH (United Kingdom)
- Istituto Universitario di Studi Superiori, piazza della Vittoria 15, I-27100 Pavia (Italy)
- Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica Milano, INAF, via E. Bassini 15, I-20133 Milano (Italy)
The detection of the first gravitational wave (GW) transient GW150914 prompted an extensive campaign of follow-up observations at all wavelengths. Although no dedicated XMM-Newton observations have been performed, the satellite passed through the GW150914 error region during normal operations. Here we report the analysis of the data taken during these satellite slews performed two hours and two weeks after the GW event. Our data cover 1.1 and 4.8 deg{sup 2} of the final GW localization region. No X-ray counterpart to GW150914 is found down to a sensitivity of 6 × 10{sup −13} erg cm{sup −2} s{sup −1} in the 0.2–2 keV band. Nevertheless, these observations show the great potential of XMM-Newton slew observations for searching for the electromagnetic counterparts of GW events. A series of adjacent slews performed in response to a GW trigger would take ≲1.5 days to cover most of the typical GW credible region. We discuss this scenario and its prospects for detecting the X-ray counterpart of future GW detections.
- OSTI ID:
- 22654194
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 822, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 2041-8205
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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