The Rapid Reddening and Featureless Optical Spectra of the Optical Counterpart of GW170817, AT 2017gfo, during the First Four Days

McCully, Curtis; Hiramatsu, Daichi; Howell, D. Andrew; Hosseinzadeh, Griffin; Arcavi, Iair; Kasen, Daniel; Barnes, Jennifer; Shara, Michael M.; Williams, Ted B.; Väisänen, Petri; Potter, Stephen B.; Romero-Colmenero, Encarni; Crawford, Steven M.; Buckley, David A.  H.; Cooke, Jeffery; Andreoni, Igor; Pritchard, Tyler A.; Mao, Jirong; Gromadzki, Mariusz; Burke, Jamison

doi:10.3847/2041-8213/aa9111

Title: The Rapid Reddening and Featureless Optical Spectra of the Optical Counterpart of GW170817, AT 2017gfo, during the First Four Days

Journal Article · 16 October 2017 · The Astrophysical Journal. Letters (Online)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/aa9111 · OSTI ID:1524168

^[1];

^[1]; Kasen, Daniel ^[2]; Barnes, Jennifer ^[3];

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^[6]; Potter, Stephen B. ^[5]; Romero-Colmenero, Encarni ^[6];

^[6];

^[6]; Cooke, Jeffery ^[7]; Andreoni, Igor ^[8]; Pritchard, Tyler A. ^[9];

^[10]; Gromadzki, Mariusz ^[11]; Burke, Jamison ^[12]

Las Cumbres Observatroy, Goleta, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States). Dept. of Physics
Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Dept. of Physics; Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Dept. of Astronomy and Theoretical Astrophysics Center; Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Nuclear Science Division
Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States). Columbia Astrophysics Lab.
American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), New York, NY (United States). Dept. of Astrophysics; Univ. of Cambridge (United Kingdom). Inst. of Astronomy
South African Astronomical Observatory, Cape Town (South Africa)
South African Astronomical Observatory, Cape Town (South Africa); Southern African Large Telescope Foundation, Cape Town (South Africa)
Swinburne Univ. of Technology, Hawthorne, VIC (Australia). Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing; The Australian Research COuncil Centre of Excellence for All-Sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO) (Australia); The Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Graviational Wave Discovery (OzGrav) (Australia)
Swinburne Univ. of Technology, Hawthorne, VIC (Australia). Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing; The Australian Research COuncil Centre of excellence for Gravitaitonal Wave Discovery (OzGrav) (Australia); Australian Astronomical Observatory, North Ryde, NSW (Australia)
Swinburne Univ. of Technology, Hawthorne, VIC (Australia). Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing
Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing (China). Yunnan Observatories; Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China). Center for Astronomical Mega-Science; Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China). Key Lab. for the Structure and Evolution of Celestial Objects
Warsaw Univ. Astronomical Observatory, Warszaw (Poland)
Las Cumbres Observatory, Goleta, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States). Dept. of Physics

We present the spectroscopic evolution of AT 2017gfo, the optical counterpart of the first binary neutron star (BNS) merger detected by LIGO and Virgo, GW170817. While models have long predicted that a BNS merger could produce a kilonova (KN), we have not been able to definitively test these models until now. From one day to four days after the merger, we took five spectra of AT 2017gfo before it faded away, which was possible because it was at a distance of only 39.5 Mpc in the galaxy NGC 4993. The spectra evolve from blue (~6400 K) to red (~3500 K) over the three days we observed. Here, the spectra are relatively featureless—some weak features exist in our latest spectrum, but they are likely due to the host galaxy. However, a simple blackbody is not sufficient to explain our data: another source of luminosity or opacity is necessary. Predictions from simulations of KNe qualitatively match the observed spectroscopic evolution after two days past the merger, but underpredict the blue flux in our earliest spectrum. From our best-fit models, we infer that AT 2017gfo had an ejecta mass of $$0.03\,{M}_{\odot }$$, high ejecta velocities of 0.3c, and a low mass fraction ~10–4 of high-opacity lanthanides and actinides. One possible explanation for the early excess of blue flux is that the outer ejecta is lanthanide-poor, while the inner ejecta has a higher abundance of high-opacity material. With the discovery and follow-up of this unique transient, combining gravitational-wave and electromagnetic astronomy, we have arrived in the multi-messenger era.

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Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0008067; SC0017616; SC0018297; AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1524168

Journal Information:: The Astrophysical Journal. Letters (Online), Vol. 848, Issue 2; ISSN 2041-8213

Publisher:: Institute of Physics (IOP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 101 works

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Diversity of kilonova light curves Kawaguchi, Kyohei; Shibata, Masaru; Tanaka, Masaomi arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1908.05815	text	January 2019
Improved constraints on H0 from a combined analysis of gravitational-wave and electromagnetic emission from GW170817 Guidorzi, C.; Margutti, R.; Brout, D. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1710.06426	text	January 2017
A comparison between SALT/SAAO observations and kilonova models for AT 2017gfo: the first electromagnetic counterpart of a gravitational wave transient - GW170817 Buckley, David A. H.; Andreoni, Igor; Barway, Sudhanshu arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1710.05855	text	January 2017
2900 Square Degree Search for the Optical Counterpart of Short Gamma-Ray Burst GRB 180523B with the Zwicky Transient Facility Coughlin, Michael W.; Ahumada, Tomás; Cenko, S. Bradley Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Vol. 131, Issue 998 https://doi.org/10.1088/1538-3873/aaff99	journal	February 2019
Implications of the radio and X-ray emission that followed GW170817 Nakar, Ehud; Piran, Tsvi Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 478, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/sty952	journal	April 2018
Line Expansion Opacity in Relativistically Expanding Media Li, Li-Xin arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1910.13619	text	January 2019
Detectability of neutron star merger afterglows Gottlieb, Ore; Nakar, Ehud; Piran, Tsvi Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 488, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stz1906	journal	July 2019
Improved Constraints on H ₀ from a Combined Analysis of Gravitational-wave and Electromagnetic Emission from GW170817 Guidorzi, C.; Margutti, R.; Brout, D. The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 851, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/aaa009	journal	December 2017
GW170817$-$the first observed neutron star merger and its kilonova: implications for the astrophysical site of the r-process Siegel, Daniel M. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1901.09044	text	January 2019
Radioactive Gamma-Ray Emissions from Neutron Star Mergers Li, Li-Xin The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 872, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aaf961	journal	February 2019
Optical emission from a kilonova following a gravitational-wave-detected neutron-star merger Arcavi, Iair; Hosseinzadeh, Griffin; Howell, D. Andrew Nature, Vol. 551, Issue 7678 https://doi.org/10.1038/nature24291	journal	October 2017
GROWTH on S190425z: Searching Thousands of Square Degrees to Identify an Optical or Infrared Counterpart to a Binary Neutron Star Merger with the Zwicky Transient Facility and Palomar Gattini-IR Coughlin, Michael W.; Ahumada, Tomás; Anand, Shreya The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 885, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ab4ad8	journal	October 2019
Fading of the X-ray Afterglow of Neutron Star Merger GW170817/GRB170817A at 260 days Nynka, Melania; Ruan, John J.; Haggard, Daryl arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1805.04093	text	January 2018
Extended calculations of energy levels and transition rates of Nd II-IV ions for application to neutron star mergers Gaigalas, Gediminas; Kato, Daiji; Rynkun, Pavel arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1901.10671	text	January 2019
Line Expansion Opacity in Relativistically Expanding Media Li, Li-Xin The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 887, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ab5306	journal	December 2019
A magnetar origin for the kilonova ejecta in GW170817 Metzger, Brian D.; Thompson, Todd A.; Quataert, Eliot arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1801.04286	text	January 2018
A Magnetar Origin for the Kilonova Ejecta in GW170817 Metzger, Brian D.; Thompson, Todd A.; Quataert, Eliot The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 856, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aab095	journal	March 2018
Prospects for observing and localizing gravitational-wave transients with Advanced LIGO, Advanced Virgo and KAGRA Abbott, B. P.; Abbott, R.; Abbott, T. D. Heidelberg : Springer https://doi.org/10.15488/10565	other	January 2020
Extended Calculations of Energy Levels and Transition Rates of Nd ii-iv Ions for Application to Neutron Star Mergers Gaigalas, Gediminas; Kato, Daiji; Rynkun, Pavel The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, Vol. 240, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4365/aaf9b8	journal	February 2019
Prospects for observing and localizing gravitational-wave transients with Advanced LIGO, Advanced Virgo and KAGRA Abbott, B. P.; Abbott, R.; Abbott, T. D. Living Reviews in Relativity, Vol. 21, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1007/s41114-018-0012-9	journal	April 2018
Estimating the contribution of dynamical ejecta in the kilonova associated with GW170817 Abbott, B. P.; Al, Et IOP Publishing https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-147235	text	January 2017
Prospects of the local Hubble parameter measurement using gravitational waves from double neutron stars Seto, Naoki; Kyutoku, Koutarou Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 475, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/sty090	journal	January 2018
Identification of strontium in the merger of two neutron stars Watson, Darach; Hansen, Camilla J.; Selsing, Jonatan Nature, Vol. 574, Issue 7779 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1676-3	journal	October 2019
The fast, luminous ultraviolet transient AT2018cow: extreme supernova, or disruption of a star by an intermediate-mass black hole? Perley, Daniel A.; Mazzali, Paolo A.; Yan, Lin Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 484, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/sty3420	journal	December 2018
2900 square degree search for the optical counterpart of short gamma-ray burst GRB 180523B with the Zwicky Transient Facility Coughlin, Michael W.; Ahumada, Tomas; Cenko, S. Bradley arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1901.11385	text	January 2019
Properties of the Binary Neutron Star Merger GW170817 Abbott, B. P.; Abbott, R.; Abbott, T. D. College Park, MD : American Physical Society https://doi.org/10.15488/11396	text	January 2019
The lanthanide fraction distribution in metal-poor stars: a test of neutron star mergers as the dominant r-process site Ji, Alexander P.; Drout, Maria R.; Hansen, Terese T. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1905.01814	text	January 2019
Optical Follow-up of Gravitational-wave Events with Las Cumbres Observatory Arcavi, Iair; McCully, Curtis; Hosseinzadeh, Griffin The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 848, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/aa910f	journal	October 2017
Estimating the Contribution of Dynamical Ejecta in the Kilonova Associated with GW170817 Abbott, B. P.; Abbott, R.; Abbott, T. D. The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 850, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/aa9478	journal	December 2017
Diversity of Kilonova Light Curves Kawaguchi, Kyohei; Shibata, Masaru; Tanaka, Masaomi The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 889, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ab61f6	journal	February 2020
Brightening X-Ray Emission from GW170817/GRB 170817A: Further Evidence for an Outflow Ruan, John J.; Nynka, Melania; Haggard, Daryl The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 853, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/aaa4f3	journal	January 2018
Kilonovae Metzger, Brian D. Living Reviews in Relativity, Vol. 23, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1007/s41114-019-0024-0	journal	December 2019
A comparison between SALT/SAAO observations and kilonova models for AT 2017gfo: the first electromagnetic counterpart of a gravitational wave transient − GW170817 Buckley, David A. H.; Andreoni, Igor; Barway, Sudhanshu Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, Vol. 474, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1093/mnrasl/slx196	journal	December 2017
Late-time evolution of afterglows from off-axis neutron star mergers Lamb, Gavin P.; Mandel, Ilya; Resmi, Lekshmi Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 481, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/sty2196	journal	August 2018
A Strategy for LSST to Unveil a Population of Kilonovae without Gravitational-wave Triggers Andreoni, Igor; Anand, Shreya; Bianco, Federica B. Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Vol. 131, Issue 1000 https://doi.org/10.1088/1538-3873/ab1531	journal	May 2019
Optimizing multitelescope observations of gravitational-wave counterparts Coughlin, Michael W.; Antier, Sarah; Corre, David Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 489, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stz2485	journal	September 2019
Shock Acceleration of Electrons and Synchrotron Emission from the Dynamical Ejecta of Neutron Star Mergers Lee, Shiu-Hang; Maeda, Keiichi; Kawanaka, Norita The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 858, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aabaea	journal	May 2018
Scattered Short Gamma-Ray Bursts as Electromagnetic Counterparts to Gravitational Waves and Implications of GW170817 and GRB 170817A Kisaka, Shota; Ioka, Kunihito; Kashiyama, Kazumi The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 867, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aae30a	journal	October 2018
Three-dimensional GRMHD Simulations of Neutrino-cooled Accretion Disks from Neutron Star Mergers Siegel, Daniel M.; Metzger, Brian D. The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 858, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aabaec	journal	May 2018
GROWTH on S190425z: Searching Thousands of Square Degrees to Identify an Optical or Infrared Counterpart to a Binary Neutron Star Merger with the Zwicky Transient Facility and Palomar Gattini-IR Coughlin, Michael W.; Ahumada, Tomás; Anand, Shreya Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, DESY, Hamburg https://doi.org/10.3204/pubdb-2019-04288	text	January 2019
Follow Up of GW170817 and Its Electromagnetic Counterpart by Australian-Led Observing Programmes Andreoni, I.; Ackley, K.; Cooke, J. Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, Vol. 34 https://doi.org/10.1017/pasa.2017.65	journal	January 2017
Kilonovae Metzger, Brian D. Living Reviews in Relativity, Vol. 23, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1007/s41114-019-0024-0	journal	December 2019
From γ to Radio: The Electromagnetic Counterpart of GW170817 Nakar, Ehud; Gottlieb, Ore; Piran, Tsvi The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 867, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aae205	journal	October 2018
Optimal Search Strategy for Finding Transients in Large-sky Error Regions under Realistic Constraints Rana, Javed; Anand, Shreya; Bose, Sukanta The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 876, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ab165a	journal	May 2019
Radioactive Heating and Late Time Kilonova Light Curves Kasen, Daniel; Barnes, Jennifer The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 876, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ab06c2	journal	May 2019
The Lanthanide Fraction Distribution in Metal-poor Stars: A Test of Neutron Star Mergers as the Dominant r -process Site Ji, Alexander P.; Drout, Maria R.; Hansen, Terese T. The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 882, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ab3291	journal	August 2019
Prospects for observing and localizing gravitational-wave transients with Advanced LIGO, Advanced Virgo and KAGRA Abbott, B. P.; Abbott, R.; Abbott, T. D. Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository https://doi.org/10.17863/cam.57867	text	January 2020
Modeling GW170817 based on numerical relativity and its implications Shibata, Masaru; Fujibayashi, Sho; Hotokezaka, Kenta arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1710.07579	text	January 2017
The Fast, Luminous Ultraviolet Transient AT2018cow: Extreme Supernova, or Disruption of a Star by an Intermediate-Mass Black Hole? Perley, Daniel A.; Mazzali, Paolo A.; Yan, Lin arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1808.00969	text	January 2018
Estimating the Contribution of Dynamical Ejecta in the Kilonova Associated with GW170817 Collaboration, The LIGO Scientific; Collaboration, The Virgo; Abbott, B. P. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1710.05836	text	January 2017
Distinguishing the nature of comparable-mass neutron star binary systems with multimessenger observations: GW170817 case study Hinderer, Tanja; Nissanke, Samaya; Foucart, Francois arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1808.03836	text	January 2018
Interpreting GRB170817A as a giant flare from a jet-less double neutron star merger Salafia, O. S.; Ghisellini, G.; Ghirlanda, G. Astronomy & Astrophysics, Vol. 619 https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201732259	journal	November 2018
On-axis view of GRB 170817A Salafia, O. S.; Ghirlanda, G.; Ascenzi, S. Astronomy & Astrophysics, Vol. 628 https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201935831	journal	July 2019
Observable features of GW170817 kilonova afterglow Kathirgamaraju, Adithan; Giannios, Dimitrios; Beniamini, Paz Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 487, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stz1564	journal	June 2019

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Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
binaries: close
gamma-ray burst: individual (GRB 170817A
GRB 130603B)
gravitational waves
stars: neutron
stars: winds
outflows