Implications for the Origin of GRB 070201 from LIGO Observations

Abstract

We analyzed the available LIGO data coincident with GRB 070201, a short-duration, hard-spectrum gamma-ray burst (GRB) whose electromagnetically determined sky position is coincident with the spiral arms of the Andromeda galaxy (M31). Possible progenitors of such short, hard GRBs include mergers of neutron stars or a neutron star and a black hole, or soft gamma-ray repeater (SGR) flares. These events can be accompanied by gravitational-wave emission. No plausible gravitational-wave candidates were found within a 180 s long window around the time of GRB 070201. This result implies that a compact binary progenitor of GRB 070201, with masses in the range 1 Msun < m1 < 3 Msun and 1 Msun < m2 < 40 Msun, located in M31 is excluded at >99% confidence. If the GRB 070201 progenitor was not in M31, then we can exclude a binary neutron star merger progenitor with distance D < 3.5 Mpc, assuming random inclination, at 90% confidence. The result also implies that an unmodeled gravitational-wave burst from GRB 070201 most probably emitted less than 4.4*10^(-4) Msun c^2 (7.9*10^50 ergs) in any 100 ms long period within the signal region if the source was in M31 and radiated isotropically at the same frequency as LIGO’s peak sensitivity (f about 150 Hz). This upper limit does not exclude current models of SGRs at the M31 distance

Sources of Gravitational Waves: Theory and Observations

“…LIGO detectors, which were taking data at the time of this event, would have quite easily detected signals from a merging NS binary at this distance, but not bursts associated with a magnetar flare. The analysis found no plausible GW candidates within a 180 s window around the time of the GRB and in particular excluded binary NS-NS and NS-BH mergers at M31 with more than 99% confidence [448]. The analysis also concluded that isotropic energy in GWs from the source, if it were at M31, was most likely less than 4.4 × 10 −4 M , lending support for the possibility that this was the first Soft Gamma Repeater flare observed outside the Milky Way.…”

“…Searches have been carried out at the time of pulsar glitches [445], magnetar flares [446] and GRBs [447]. Of particular significance is the search for GWs around the time of GRB070201 [448]. The event in this case was a shGRB that is believed to have followed either from giant quakes in highly magnetised NSs or from merging binary NSs.…”

Estimation of compact binary coalescense rates from short gamma-ray burst redshift measurements

“…The LIGO detectors, described in detail in (Abbott et al 2004b;Barish & Weiss 1999), consist of two instruments at two sites in the US, while Virgo consists of one instrument located near Pisa in Italy (Acernese et al 2006). Several results of searches for merger signals have been published, with upper limits on the rates of merger events (Abbott et al 2004a(Abbott et al , 2005a(Abbott et al ,b, 2006(Abbott et al , 2007, along with triggered searches for merger signals associated with type-I GRBs (Abbott et al 2008;Abadie et al 2010), but so far, no GWs have been detected. These detectors are currently undergoing significant enhancements, before a new data-taking campaign commences in ∼2015 with a 10-fold increase in sensitivity with respect to the initial configuration, probing a 1000-fold volume in space.…”

Search for Gravitational-Wave Bursts Associated With Gamma-Ray Bursts Using Data From Ligo Science Run 5 and Virgo Science Run 1

“…Data from the Virgo detector were used to search for a GWB associated with GRB 050915a (Acernese et al 2007(Acernese et al , 2008a. Most recently, data from the fifth LIGO science run were analyzed to search for a GWB or binary coalescence inspiral signal from GRB 070201 (Abbott et al 2008a). This short-duration GRB had a position error box overlapping the Andromeda galaxy (M31), located at a distance of 770 kpc.…”