On 2017 August 17 a binary neutron star coalescence candidate (later designated GW170817) with merger time 12:41:04 UTC was observed through gravitational waves by the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. The Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor independently detected a gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) with a time delay of ∼ 1.7 s with respect to the merger time. From the gravitational-wave signal, the source was initially localized to a sky region of 31 deg2 at a luminosity distance of 40 − 8 + 8 Mpc and with component masses consistent with neutron stars. The component masses were later measured to be in the range 0.86 to 2.26 M ⊙ . An extensive observing campaign was launched across the electromagnetic spectrum leading to the discovery of a bright optical transient (SSS17a, now with the IAU identification of AT 2017gfo) in NGC 4993 (at ∼ 40 Mpc ) less than 11 hours after the merger by the One-Meter, Two Hemisphere (1M2H) team using the 1 m Swope Telescope. The optical transient was independently detected by multiple teams within an hour. Subsequent observations targeted the object and its environment. Early ultraviolet observations revealed a blue transient that faded within 48 hours. Optical and infrared observations showed a redward evolution over ∼10 days. Following early non-detections, X-ray and radio emission were discovered at the transient’s position ∼ 9 and ∼ 16 days, respectively, after the merger. Both the X-ray and radio emission likely arise from a physical process that is distinct from the one that generates the UV/optical/near-infrared emission. No ultra-high-energy gamma-rays and no neutrino candidates consistent with the source were found in follow-up searches. These observations support the hypothesis that GW170817 was produced by the merger of two neutron stars in NGC 4993 followed by a short gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) and a kilonova/macronova powered by the radioactive decay of r-process nuclei synthesized in the ejecta.

We report the detection of giant pulse emission from PSR B0950+08 in 12 hours of observations made simultaneously at 42 MHz and 74 MHz, using the first station of the Long Wavelength Array, LWA1. We detected 275 giant pulses (in 0.16% of the pulse periods) and 465 giant pulses (0.27%) at 42 and 74 MHz, respectively. The pulsar is weaker and produces less frequent giant pulses than at 100 MHz. Here, giant pulses are taken as having ≥ 10 times the flux density of an average pulse; their cumulative distribution of pulse strength follows a power law, with a index of −4.1 at 42 MHz and −5.1 at 74 MHz, which is much less steep than would be expected if we were observing the tail of a Gaussian distribution of normal pulses. We detected no other transient pulses in a wide dispersion measure range from 1 to 5000 pc cm −3 . There were 128 giant pulses detected within in the same periods from both 42 and 74 MHz, which means more than half of them are not generated in a wide band. We use CLEANbased algorithm to analyze the temporal broadening and conclude that the scattering effect from the interstellar medium can not be observed. We calculated the altitude r of the emission region using the dipolar magnetic field model. We found r(42 MHz) = 29.27 km (0.242% of R LC ) and r(74 MHz) = 29.01 km (0.240% of R LC ) for the average pulse, while for giant pulses, r(42 MHz) = 29.10 km (0.241% of R LC ) and r(74 MHz) = 28.95 km (0.240% of R LC ). Giant pulses, which have a double-peak structure, have a smaller mean peak-to-peak separation compared to the average pulse.

We report the detection of giant pulse emission from PSR B0950+08 in 24 hours of observations made at 39.4 MHz, with a bandwidth of 16 MHz, using the first station of the Long Wavelength Array, LWA1. We detected 119 giant pulses from PSR B0950+08 (at its dispersion measure), which we define as having SNRs at least 10 times larger than for the mean pulse in our data set. These 119 pulses are 0.035% of the total number of pulse periods in the 24 hours of observations. The rate of giant pulses is about 5.0 per hour. The cumulative distribution of pulse strength S is a steep power law, N (> S) ∝ S −4.7 , but much less steep than would be expected if we were observing the tail of a Gaussian distribution of normal pulses. We detected no other transient pulses in a dispersion measure range from 1 to 90 pc cm −3 , in the beam tracking PSR B0950+08. The giant pulses have a narrower temporal width than the mean pulse (17.8 ms, on average, vs. 30.5 ms). The pulse widths are consistent with a previously observed weak dependence on observing frequency, which may be indicative of a deviation from a Kolmogorov spectrum of electron density irregularities along the line of sight. The rate and strength of these giant pulses is less than has been observed at ∼100 MHz. Additionally, the mean (normal) pulse flux density we observed is less than at ∼100 MHz. These results suggest this pulsar is weaker and produces less frequent giant pulses at 39 MHz than at 100 MHz.for gravitational-wave events, triggered by the detection of radio transients. The benefits of such collaborative work will be described in another publication.We would like to acknowledge insightful discussions with S.W. Ellingson, T.J.W. Lazio and P. S. Ray.

We explore opportunities for multi-messenger astronomy using gravitational waves (GWs) and prompt, transient low-frequency radio emission to study highly energetic astrophysical events. We review the literature on possible sources of correlated emission of gravitational waves and radio transients, highlighting proposed mechanisms that lead to a short-duration, high-flux radio pulse originating from the merger of two neutron stars or from a superconducting cosmic string cusp. We discuss the detection prospects for each of these mechanisms by low-frequency dipole array instruments such as LWA1, LOFAR and MWA. We find that a broad range of models may be tested by searching for radio pulses that, when de-dispersed, are temporally and spatially coincident with a LIGO/Virgo GW trigger within a ∼30 second time window and ∼200-500 deg 2 sky region. We consider various possible observing strategies and discuss their advantages and disadvantages. Uniquely, for low-frequency radio arrays, dispersion can delay the radio pulse until after low-latency GW data analysis has identified and reported an event candidate, enabling a prompt radio signal to be captured by a deliberately targeted beam. If neutron star mergers do have detectable prompt radio emissions, a coincident search with the GW detector network and low-frequency radio arrays could increase the LIGO/Virgo effective search volume by up to a factor of ∼2. For some models, we also map the parameter space that may be constrained by non-detections.

In this work we adopted a CLEAN-based method to determine the scatter time, τ , from archived pulsar profiles under both the thin screen and uniform medium scattering models and to calculate the scatter time frequency scale index α, where τ ∝ ν α . The value of α is −4.4, if a Kolmogorov spectrum of the interstellar medium turbulence is assumed. We deconvolved 1342 profiles from 347 pulsars over a broad range of frequencies and dispersion measures. In our survey, in the majority of cases the scattering effect was not significant compared to pulse profile widths. For a subset of 21 pulsars scattering at the lowest frequencies was large enough to be measured. Because reliable scatter time measurements were determined only for the lowest frequency, we were limited to using upper limits on scatter times at higher frequencies for the purpose of our scatter time frequency slope estimation. We scaled the deconvolved scatter time to 1 GHz assuming α = −4.4 and considered our results in the context of other observations which yielded a broad relation between scatter time and dispersion measure.