Methods and results of a search for gravitational waves associated with gamma-ray bursts using the GEO 600, LIGO, and Virgo detectors

Abstract

In this paper we report on a search for short-duration gravitational wave bursts in the frequency range 64 Hz-1792 Hz associated with gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), using data from GEO 600 and one of the LIGO or Virgo detectors. We introduce the method of a linear search grid to analyze GRB events with large sky localization uncertainties, for example the localizations provided by the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM). Coherent searches for gravitational waves (GWs) can be computationally intensive when the GRB sky position is not well localized, due to the corrections required for the difference in arrival time between detectors. Using a linear search grid we are able to reduce the computational cost of the analysis by a factor of Oð10Þ for GBM events. Furthermore, we demonstrate that our analysis pipeline can improve upon the sky localization of GRBs detected by the GBM, if a high-frequency GW signal is observed in coincidence. We use the method of the linear grid in a search for GWs associated with 129 GRBs observed satellitebased gamma-ray experiments between 2006 and 2011. The GRBs in our sample had not been previously analyzed for GW counterparts. A fraction of our GRB events are analyzed using data from GEO 600 while the detector was using squeezed-light states to improve its sensitivity; this is the first search for GWs using data from a squeezed-light interferometric observatory. We find no evidence for GW signals, either with any individual GRB in this sample or with the population as a whole. For each GRB we place lower bounds on the distance to the progenitor, under an assumption of a fixed GW emission energy of 10 −2 M⊙c 2 , with a median exclusion distance of 0.8 Mpc for emission at 500 Hz and 0.3 Mpc at 1 kHz. The reduced computational cost associated with a linear search grid will enable rapid searches for GWs associated with Fermi GBM events once the advanced LIGO and Virgo detectors begin operation.

Search for Gravitational Waves Associated with Gamma-Ray Bursts during the First Advanced LIGO Observing Run and Implications for the Origin of GRB 150906B

“…The method used to search for generic GW transients follows the one used in previous GRB analyses (Abadie et al 2012a;Aasi et al 2014aAasi et al , 2014b and is described in detail in Sutton et al (2010) and Was et al (2012). The on-source data for each GRB are processed by the search pipeline to generate multiple time-frequency maps of the data stream using short Fourier transforms with duration at all powers of two between 1 128 s and 2 s. The maps are generated after coherently combining data from the detectors, taking into account the antenna response and noise level of each detector.…”

Prospects for Observing and Localizing Gravitational-Wave Transients with Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo

“…For example, in GW searches triggered by gamma-ray bursts [18, 7, 6] the triggering space-based telescope provides the localization. The detection of a GW transient associated with a gamma-ray burst would provide strong evidence for the burst progenitor; for example, BNS mergers are considered the likely progenitors of most short gamma-ray bursts.…”

Directed searches for continuous gravitational waves from binary systems: Parameter-space metrics and optimal Scorpius X-1 sensitivity

“…Several searches for CW signals from Scorpius X-1 have been performed (without any detections) on data from a paola.leaci@roma1.infn.it b reinhard.prix@aei.mpg.de initial LIGO [11][12][13], and several new pipelines have been developed and are currently being tested in a Scorpius X-1 Mock Data Challenge (MDC) [10]. So far, all current methods fall into either one of two extreme cases: highly coherent with a short total time baseline (6 hours in [11], 10 days in [13]), or highly incoherent with a long total baseline but very short (∼hours) coherent segments [12,14,15].…”