Radio counterparts of compact binary mergers detectable in gravitational waves: a simulation for an optimized survey
- Racah Institute of Physics, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 91904 (Israel)
- Institute of Mathematics, Astrophysics and Particle Physics, Radboud University, Heyendaalseweg 135, 6525 AJ Nijmegen (Netherlands)
- Cahill Center for Astronomy, MC 249-17, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109 (United States)
- Raymond and Beverly Sackler School of Physics and Astronomy, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978 (Israel)
Mergers of binary neutron stars and black hole–neutron star binaries produce gravitational-wave (GW) emission and outflows with significant kinetic energies. These outflows result in radio emissions through synchrotron radiation. We explore the detectability of these synchrotron-generated radio signals by follow-up observations of GW merger events lacking a detection of electromagnetic counterparts in other wavelengths. We model radio light curves arising from (i) sub-relativistic merger ejecta and (ii) ultra-relativistic jets. The former produce radio remnants on timescales of a few years and the latter produce γ-ray bursts in the direction of the jet and orphan-radio afterglows extending over wider angles on timescales of weeks. Based on the derived light curves, we suggest an optimized survey at 1.4 GHz with five epochs separated by a logarithmic time interval. We estimate the detectability of the radio counterparts of simulated GW-merger events to be detected by advanced LIGO and Virgo by current and future radio facilities. The detectable distances for these GW merger events could be as high as 1 Gpc. Around 20%–60% of the long-lasting radio remnants will be detectable in the case of the moderate kinetic energy of 3⋅10{sup 50} erg and a circum-merger density of 0.1 cm{sup −3} or larger, while 5%–20% of the orphan-radio afterglows with kinetic energy of 10{sup 48} erg will be detectable. The detection likelihood increases if one focuses on the well-localizable GW events. We discuss the background noise due to radio fluxes of host galaxies and false positives arising from extragalactic radio transients and variable active galactic nuclei, and we show that the quiet radio transient sky is of great advantage when searching for the radio counterparts.
- OSTI ID:
- 22868475
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 831, 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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Related Subjects
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
AFTERGLOW
BACKGROUND NOISE
BLACK HOLES
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
COSMIC GAMMA BURSTS
DENSITY
DETECTION
DIAGRAMS
DISTANCE
EMISSION
GALAXIES
GALAXY NUCLEI
GHZ RANGE
GRAVITATIONAL WAVES
KINETIC ENERGY
NEUTRON STARS
RELATIVISTIC RANGE
SYNCHROTRON RADIATION
WAVELENGTHS