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  • Accepted Manuscript: Swift and NuSTAR observations of GW170817: Detection of a blue kilonova

Title: Swift and NuSTAR observations of GW170817: Detection of a blue kilonova

With the first direct detection of merging black holes in 2015, the era of gravitational wave (GW) astrophysics began. However, a complete picture of compact object mergers requires the detection of an electromagnetic (EM) counterpart. Here, we report ultraviolet (UV) and x-ray observations by Swift and the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope ARray (NuSTAR) of the EM counterpart of the binary neutron star merger GW 170817. The bright, rapidly fading ultraviolet emission indicates a high mass (≈ 0.03 solar masses) wind-driven outflow with moderate electron fraction (Ye ≈ 0.27). Combined with the x-ray limits, we favor an observer viewing angle of ≈30° away from the orbital rotation axis, which avoids both obscuration from the heaviest elements in the orbital plane and a direct view of any ultra-relativistic, highly collimated ejecta (a γ-ray burst afterglow).
Authors:
 [1] ;  [2] ;  [3] ;  [4] ;  [4] ;  [5] ;  [5] ;  [5] ;  [6] ;  [6] ;  [6] ;  [7] ;  [8] ;  [9] ;  [10] ;  [11] ;  [2] ;  [4] ;  [12] ;  [12] more »;  [1] ;  [3] ;  [13] ;  [13] ;  [10] ;  [14] ;  [15] ;  [16] ;  [5] ;  [6] ;  [6] ;  [17] ;  [6] ;  [3] ;  [18] ;  [6] ;  [5] ;  [6] ;  [19] ;  [20] ;  [21] ;  [10] ;  [6] ;  [3] ;  [1] ;  [1] ;  [1] ;  [1] ;  [5] ;  [14] ;  [6] ;  [12] ;  [22] ;  [3] ;  [23] ;  [3] ;  [10] ;  [1] ;  [3] « less
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Univ. of Leicester (United Kingdom)
  2. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States); Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States)
  3. Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States)
  4. Univ. College London, Dorking (United Kingdom)
  5. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  6. California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)
  7. Tel Aviv Univ., Ramat Aviv (Israel)
  8. Simons Foundation, New York, NY (United States)
  9. Center for Research and Exploration in Space Science and Technology (CRESST) and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD (United States); Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States)
  10. National Inst. for Astrophysics (INAF), Roma (Italy)
  11. Univ. of Warwick, Coventry (United Kingdom)
  12. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States)
  13. National Inst. for Astrophysics (INAF), Palermo (Italy)
  14. National Inst. for Astrophysics (INAF), Catone (Italy); Space Science Data Center (SSDC), Rome (Italy)
  15. Univ. of Istanbul (Turkey)
  16. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Southern Utah Univ., Cedar City, UT (United States)
  17. Space Science Data Center (SSDC), Rome (Italy)
  18. Clemson Univ., SC (United States)
  19. Universities Space Research Association, Columbia, MD (United States); National Science Foundation (NSF), Alexandria, VA (United States)
  20. Univ. of Warick, Coventry (United Kingdom)
  21. Univ. of Copenhagen (Denmark). The Niels Bohr Inst.
  22. Stockholm Univ. (Sweden)
  23. Aoyama Gakuin Univ., Kanagawa (Japan)
Publication Date:
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-17-28358
Journal ID: ISSN 0036-8075
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-06NA25396
Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Science
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 358; Journal Issue: 6370; Journal ID: ISSN 0036-8075
Publisher:
AAAS
Research Org:
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Org:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; Swift; X-ray; kilonova; ultraviolet
OSTI Identifier:
1407906
Citation Formats
Evans, P. A., Cenko, S. B., Kennea, J. A., Emery, S. W. K., Kuin, N. P. M., Korobkin, O., Wollaeger, R. T., Fryer, C. L., Madsen, K. K., Harrison, F. A., Xu, Y., Nakar, E., Hotokezaka, K., Lien, A., Campana, S., Oates, S. R., Troja, E., Breeveld, A. A., Marshall, F. E., Barthelmy, S. D., Beardmore, A. P., Burrows, D. N., Cusumano, G., D’Aì, A., D’Avanzo, P., D’Elia, V., de Pasquale, M., Even, W. P., Fontes, C. J., Forster, K., Garcia, J., Giommi, P., Grefenstette, B., Gronwall, C., Hartmann, D. H., Heida, M., Hungerford, A. L., Kasliwal, M. M., Krimm, H. A., Levan, A. J., Malesani, D., Melandri, A., Miyasaka, H., Nousek, J. A., O’Brien, P. T., Osborne, J. P., Pagani, C., Page, K. L., Palmer, D. M., Perri, M., Pike, S., Racusin, J. L., Rosswog, S., Siegel, M. H., Sakamoto, T., Sbarufatti, B., Tagliaferri, G., Tanvir, N. R., and Tohuvavohu, A.. Swift and NuSTAR observations of GW170817: Detection of a blue kilonova. United States: N. p., Web. doi:10.1126/science.aap9580.
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Evans, P. A., Cenko, S. B., Kennea, J. A., Emery, S. W. K., Kuin, N. P. M., Korobkin, O., Wollaeger, R. T., Fryer, C. L., Madsen, K. K., Harrison, F. A., Xu, Y., Nakar, E., Hotokezaka, K., Lien, A., Campana, S., Oates, S. R., Troja, E., Breeveld, A. A., Marshall, F. E., Barthelmy, S. D., Beardmore, A. P., Burrows, D. N., Cusumano, G., D’Aì, A., D’Avanzo, P., D’Elia, V., de Pasquale, M., Even, W. P., Fontes, C. J., Forster, K., Garcia, J., Giommi, P., Grefenstette, B., Gronwall, C., Hartmann, D. H., Heida, M., Hungerford, A. L., Kasliwal, M. M., Krimm, H. A., Levan, A. J., Malesani, D., Melandri, A., Miyasaka, H., Nousek, J. A., O’Brien, P. T., Osborne, J. P., Pagani, C., Page, K. L., Palmer, D. M., Perri, M., Pike, S., Racusin, J. L., Rosswog, S., Siegel, M. H., Sakamoto, T., Sbarufatti, B., Tagliaferri, G., Tanvir, N. R., & Tohuvavohu, A.. Swift and NuSTAR observations of GW170817: Detection of a blue kilonova. United States. doi:10.1126/science.aap9580.
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Evans, P. A., Cenko, S. B., Kennea, J. A., Emery, S. W. K., Kuin, N. P. M., Korobkin, O., Wollaeger, R. T., Fryer, C. L., Madsen, K. K., Harrison, F. A., Xu, Y., Nakar, E., Hotokezaka, K., Lien, A., Campana, S., Oates, S. R., Troja, E., Breeveld, A. A., Marshall, F. E., Barthelmy, S. D., Beardmore, A. P., Burrows, D. N., Cusumano, G., D’Aì, A., D’Avanzo, P., D’Elia, V., de Pasquale, M., Even, W. P., Fontes, C. J., Forster, K., Garcia, J., Giommi, P., Grefenstette, B., Gronwall, C., Hartmann, D. H., Heida, M., Hungerford, A. L., Kasliwal, M. M., Krimm, H. A., Levan, A. J., Malesani, D., Melandri, A., Miyasaka, H., Nousek, J. A., O’Brien, P. T., Osborne, J. P., Pagani, C., Page, K. L., Palmer, D. M., Perri, M., Pike, S., Racusin, J. L., Rosswog, S., Siegel, M. H., Sakamoto, T., Sbarufatti, B., Tagliaferri, G., Tanvir, N. R., and Tohuvavohu, A.. 2017. "Swift and NuSTAR observations of GW170817: Detection of a blue kilonova". United States. doi:10.1126/science.aap9580. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1407906.
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@article{osti_1407906,
title = {Swift and NuSTAR observations of GW170817: Detection of a blue kilonova},
author = {Evans, P. A. and Cenko, S. B. and Kennea, J. A. and Emery, S. W. K. and Kuin, N. P. M. and Korobkin, O. and Wollaeger, R. T. and Fryer, C. L. and Madsen, K. K. and Harrison, F. A. and Xu, Y. and Nakar, E. and Hotokezaka, K. and Lien, A. and Campana, S. and Oates, S. R. and Troja, E. and Breeveld, A. A. and Marshall, F. E. and Barthelmy, S. D. and Beardmore, A. P. and Burrows, D. N. and Cusumano, G. and D’Aì, A. and D’Avanzo, P. and D’Elia, V. and de Pasquale, M. and Even, W. P. and Fontes, C. J. and Forster, K. and Garcia, J. and Giommi, P. and Grefenstette, B. and Gronwall, C. and Hartmann, D. H. and Heida, M. and Hungerford, A. L. and Kasliwal, M. M. and Krimm, H. A. and Levan, A. J. and Malesani, D. and Melandri, A. and Miyasaka, H. and Nousek, J. A. and O’Brien, P. T. and Osborne, J. P. and Pagani, C. and Page, K. L. and Palmer, D. M. and Perri, M. and Pike, S. and Racusin, J. L. and Rosswog, S. and Siegel, M. H. and Sakamoto, T. and Sbarufatti, B. and Tagliaferri, G. and Tanvir, N. R. and Tohuvavohu, A.},
abstractNote = {With the first direct detection of merging black holes in 2015, the era of gravitational wave (GW) astrophysics began. However, a complete picture of compact object mergers requires the detection of an electromagnetic (EM) counterpart. Here, we report ultraviolet (UV) and x-ray observations by Swift and the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope ARray (NuSTAR) of the EM counterpart of the binary neutron star merger GW 170817. The bright, rapidly fading ultraviolet emission indicates a high mass (≈ 0.03 solar masses) wind-driven outflow with moderate electron fraction (Ye ≈ 0.27). Combined with the x-ray limits, we favor an observer viewing angle of ≈30° away from the orbital rotation axis, which avoids both obscuration from the heaviest elements in the orbital plane and a direct view of any ultra-relativistic, highly collimated ejecta (a γ-ray burst afterglow).},
doi = {10.1126/science.aap9580},
journal = {Science},
number = 6370,
volume = 358,
place = {United States},
year = {2017},
month = {10}
}
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Works referenced in this record:

Nuclear Ground-State Masses and Deformations
journal, March 1995
  • Moller, P.; Nix, J. R.; Myers, W. D.
  • Atomic Data and Nuclear Data Tables, Vol. 59, Issue 2, p. 185-381
  • DOI: 10.1006/adnd.1995.1002

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