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Title: The X-ray counterpart to the gravitational-wave event GW170817

Abstract

We present a long-standing paradigm in astrophysics is that collisions—or mergers—of two neutron stars form highly relativistic and collimated outflows (jets) that power γ-ray bursts of short (less than two seconds) duration. The observational support for this model, however, is only indirect. A hitherto outstanding prediction is that gravitational-wave events from such mergers should be associated with γ-ray bursts, and that a majority of these bursts should be seen off-axis, that is, they should point away from Earth. Here we report the discovery observations of the X-ray counterpart associated with the gravitational-wave event GW170817. Although the electromagnetic counterpart at optical and infrared frequencies is dominated by the radioactive glow (known as a ‘kilonova’) from freshly synthesized rapid neutron capture (r-process) material in the merger ejecta, observations at X-ray and, later, radio frequencies are consistent with a short γ-ray burst viewed off-axis. Lastly, our detection of X-ray emission at a location coincident with the kilonova transient provides the missing observational link between short γ-ray bursts and gravitational waves from neutron-star mergers, and gives independent confirmation of the collimated nature of the γ-ray-burst emission.

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [8];  [9];  [4];  [10];  [11];  [6];  [4];  [5];  [12];  [13];  [13];  [5];  [14] more »;  [14];  [4];  [15];  [6];  [5];  [16];  [16];  [5];  [1];  [5];  [2];  [17];  [18];  [5] « less
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States); NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States)
  2. INAF, Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali, Rome (Italy)
  3. University of Bath, Claverton Down (United Kingdom)
  4. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  5. Seoul National University (South Korea)
  6. Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD (United States)
  7. Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ (United States)
  8. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States); Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States)
  9. Aoyama Gakuin University (Japan)
  10. INAF-Istituto di Radioastronomia (Italy)
  11. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States); Univ. of Maryland, Baltimore, MD (United States)
  12. Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstrasse (Germany)
  13. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (Mexico)
  14. INAF/Brera Astronomical Observatory, Merate (Italy)
  15. Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (Spain); Universidad de La Laguna (Spain)
  16. Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (South Korea)
  17. Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States)
  18. CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science, Epping (Australia)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program
OSTI Identifier:
1479933
Report Number(s):
[LA-UR-17-29087]
[Journal ID: ISSN 0028-0836]
Grant/Contract Number:  
[AC52-06NA25396]
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Nature (London)
Additional Journal Information:
[Journal Name: Nature (London); Journal Volume: 551; Journal Issue: 7678]; Journal ID: ISSN 0028-0836
Publisher:
Nature Publishing Group
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; gravitational waves; kilonova; X-rays; counterpart; r-process

Citation Formats

Troja, E., Piro, L., van Eerten, H., Wollaeger, R. T., Im, M., Fox, O. D., Butler, N. R., Cenko, S. B., Sakamoto, T., Fryer, C. L., Ricci, R., Lien, A., Ryan, R. E., Korobkin, O., Lee, S. -K., Burgess, J. M., Lee, W. H., Watson, A. M., Choi, C., Covino, S., D’Avanzo, P., Fontes, C. J., González, J. Becerra, Khandrika, H. G., Kim, J., Kim, S. -L., Lee, C. -U., Lee, H. M., Kutyrev, A., Lim, G., Sánchez-Ramírez, R., Veilleux, S., Wieringa, M. H., and Yoon, Y. The X-ray counterpart to the gravitational-wave event GW170817. United States: N. p., 2017. Web. doi:10.1038/nature24290.
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Troja, E., Piro, L., van Eerten, H., Wollaeger, R. T., Im, M., Fox, O. D., Butler, N. R., Cenko, S. B., Sakamoto, T., Fryer, C. L., Ricci, R., Lien, A., Ryan, R. E., Korobkin, O., Lee, S. -K., Burgess, J. M., Lee, W. H., Watson, A. M., Choi, C., Covino, S., D’Avanzo, P., Fontes, C. J., González, J. Becerra, Khandrika, H. G., Kim, J., Kim, S. -L., Lee, C. -U., Lee, H. M., Kutyrev, A., Lim, G., Sánchez-Ramírez, R., Veilleux, S., Wieringa, M. H., & Yoon, Y. The X-ray counterpart to the gravitational-wave event GW170817. United States. doi:10.1038/nature24290.
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Troja, E., Piro, L., van Eerten, H., Wollaeger, R. T., Im, M., Fox, O. D., Butler, N. R., Cenko, S. B., Sakamoto, T., Fryer, C. L., Ricci, R., Lien, A., Ryan, R. E., Korobkin, O., Lee, S. -K., Burgess, J. M., Lee, W. H., Watson, A. M., Choi, C., Covino, S., D’Avanzo, P., Fontes, C. J., González, J. Becerra, Khandrika, H. G., Kim, J., Kim, S. -L., Lee, C. -U., Lee, H. M., Kutyrev, A., Lim, G., Sánchez-Ramírez, R., Veilleux, S., Wieringa, M. H., and Yoon, Y. Mon . "The X-ray counterpart to the gravitational-wave event GW170817". United States. doi:10.1038/nature24290. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1479933.
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@article{osti_1479933,
title = {The X-ray counterpart to the gravitational-wave event GW170817},
author = {Troja, E. and Piro, L. and van Eerten, H. and Wollaeger, R. T. and Im, M. and Fox, O. D. and Butler, N. R. and Cenko, S. B. and Sakamoto, T. and Fryer, C. L. and Ricci, R. and Lien, A. and Ryan, R. E. and Korobkin, O. and Lee, S. -K. and Burgess, J. M. and Lee, W. H. and Watson, A. M. and Choi, C. and Covino, S. and D’Avanzo, P. and Fontes, C. J. and González, J. Becerra and Khandrika, H. G. and Kim, J. and Kim, S. -L. and Lee, C. -U. and Lee, H. M. and Kutyrev, A. and Lim, G. and Sánchez-Ramírez, R. and Veilleux, S. and Wieringa, M. H. and Yoon, Y.},
abstractNote = {We present a long-standing paradigm in astrophysics is that collisions—or mergers—of two neutron stars form highly relativistic and collimated outflows (jets) that power γ-ray bursts of short (less than two seconds) duration. The observational support for this model, however, is only indirect. A hitherto outstanding prediction is that gravitational-wave events from such mergers should be associated with γ-ray bursts, and that a majority of these bursts should be seen off-axis, that is, they should point away from Earth. Here we report the discovery observations of the X-ray counterpart associated with the gravitational-wave event GW170817. Although the electromagnetic counterpart at optical and infrared frequencies is dominated by the radioactive glow (known as a ‘kilonova’) from freshly synthesized rapid neutron capture (r-process) material in the merger ejecta, observations at X-ray and, later, radio frequencies are consistent with a short γ-ray burst viewed off-axis. Lastly, our detection of X-ray emission at a location coincident with the kilonova transient provides the missing observational link between short γ-ray bursts and gravitational waves from neutron-star mergers, and gives independent confirmation of the collimated nature of the γ-ray-burst emission.},
doi = {10.1038/nature24290},
journal = {Nature (London)},
number = [7678],
volume = [551],
place = {United States},
year = {2017},
month = {10}
}
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DOI:  10.1038/nature24290
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