On the gravitational lensing interpretation of three gravitational wave detections in the mass gap by LIGO and Virgo

Bianconi, Matteo; Smith, Graham P.; Nicholl, M.; Ryczanowski, Dan; Richard, Johan; Jauzac, Mathilde; Massey, Richard; Robertson, Andrew; Sharon, Keren; Ridley, E. J.

doi:10.48550/arxiv.2204.12978

Cited by 5 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 29 publications

(49 reference statements)

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“…However, cleaner selection of candidates would be achieved if mass and/or mass ratio posteriors could be made available in low latency. This is discussed in more detail in a companion paper (Bianconi et al 2022). Lensed kilonova counterparts are detectable with Rubin.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…For example, the lightcurves of objects with lower mass ratios are brighter and fade slower than for higher mass ratios (Figure 11; note the mass ratio 𝑞 is lensing invariant and thus low latency posteriors on this parameter are straightforward to interpret). If available, low latency posteriors on M would also help considerably, as highlighted by Bianconi et al (2022). Two of the three mass gap detections (𝑝 gap > 0.94) that we followed up in LIGO's third run were later identified as having chirp masses of M 8 M .…”

Section: Outline Observing Strategymentioning

confidence: 92%

“…Indeed, LIGO have already detected objects in this region of parameter space that have attracted significant interest (e.g. Wyrzykowski & Mandel 2020;Bianconi et al 2022).…”

Section: Implications For Discovery Strategiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In a similar vein to the advent of charge coupled devices (CCDs) in optical astronomy in the 1980s, several groups have been considering whether any of the gravitationally lensed GWs detected by current GW instruments are lensed (e.g. Smith et al 2018Smith et al , 2019bHannuksela et al 2019;Singer et al 2019;Dai et al 2020;Abbott et al 2020;McIsaac et al 2020;Liu et al 2021;The LIGO Scientific Collaboration et al 2021a;Diego et al 2021;Bianconi et al 2022;Broadhurst et al 2022). In turn this is motivating development of the techniques required to identify candidate lensed GWs in the datastreams available in the 2020s and to test the lensing hypothesis (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Decisive progress towards robust and unchallenged detection of a gravitationally lensed GW rests fundamentally on our ability to identify candidate lensed GWs and then to localize them to a lensed host galaxy. Searches for candidate lensed GWs have so far concentrated either on pairs of GW detections with sky localizations and waveforms that are consistent with being lensed images of the same source and/or on individual detections of GW sources that appear to have an anomalous mass relative to an assumed underlying mass function (Smith et al 2018(Smith et al , 2019bHannuksela et al 2019;Singer et al 2019;Dai et al 2020;McIsaac et al 2020;Abbott et al 2020;Diego et al 2021;Liu et al 2021;The LIGO Scientific Collaboration et al 2021a;Diego et al 2021;Bianconi et al 2022;Broadhurst et al 2022). Both approaches are grounded in the physics of gravitational lensing in that multiply-imaged GWs will be magnified and thus will potentially differ in their apparent mass from the underlying mass function that describes the intrinsic population.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Discovering gravitationally lensed gravitational waves: predicted rates, candidate selection, and localization with the Vera Rubin Observatory

Smith¹,

Robertson²,

Mahler³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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The first secure detection of a gravitationally lensed gravitational (GW) will be a watershed moment, as it will bring together these two pillars of General Relativity for the first time. Accurate selection and interpretation of candidate lensed GWs is challenging for numerous reasons, including large sky localization uncertainties for most GW detections, the broad range of gravitational lenses spanning galaxy/group/cluster-scales in the dark matter halo mass function, and uncertainty in the intrinsic mass function of compact object remnants of stellar evolution. We introduce a new magnification-based approach to predicting the rates of lensed GWs that is agnostic to the mass and structure of the lenses and combine it with expressions for arrival time difference for representative lenses and their catastrophes to delineate the range of expected arrival time differences. We also predict the lightcurves of lensed kilonova counterparts to lensed binary neutron star (NS-NS) mergers and assess the feasibility of detection with the Vera Rubin Observatory. Our main conclusions are: (1) selection of candidate lensed NS-NS mergers from the mass gap between NS and black holes in low latency is an efficient approach with a rate approaching one per year in the mid-2020s, (2) the arrival time differences of lensed NS-NS/kilonovae are typically 1 year, and thus well-matched to the operations of GW detectors and optical telescopes, and (3) detection of lensed kilonovae is feasible with the Vera Rubin Observatory. Whilst our predictions are motivated by lensing, they provide a physically well-understood approach to exploring the mass gap electromagnetically as the number of detections in this exciting region of parameter space grows.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Section: Outline Observing Strategymentioning

confidence: 92%

“…Indeed, LIGO have already detected objects in this region of parameter space that have attracted significant interest (e.g. Wyrzykowski & Mandel 2020;Bianconi et al 2022).…”

Section: Implications For Discovery Strategiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Discovering gravitationally lensed gravitational waves: predicted rates, candidate selection, and localization with the Vera Rubin Observatory

Smith¹,

Robertson²,

Mahler³

et al. 2022

Preprint

Self Cite

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Strongly Lensed Transient Sources: A Review

Liao¹,

Biesiada²,

Zhu³

2022

Chinese Phys. Lett.

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The past decades have witnessed a lot of progress in gravitational lensing with two main targets: stars and galaxies (with active galactic nuclei). The success is partially attributed to the continuous luminescence of these sources making the detection and monitoring relatively easy. With the running of ongoing and upcoming large facilities/surveys in various electromagnetic and gravitational-wave bands, the era of time-domain surveys would guarantee constant detection of strongly lensed explosive transient events, for example, supernovae in all types, gamma ray bursts with afterglows in all bands, fast radio bursts and even gravitational waves. Lensed transients have many advantages over the traditional targets in studying the Universe and magnification effect helps to understand the transients themselves at high redshifts. In this review article, basing on the recent achievements in the literature, we summarize the methods of searching for different kinds of lensed transient signals, the latest results on detection and their applications in fundamental physics, astrophysics and cosmology. At the same time, we give supplementary comments as well as prospects of this emerging research direction that may help readers who are interested in entering this field.

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On the Neutron Star/Black Hole Mass Gap and Black Hole Searches

Shao

2022

Res. Astron. Astrophys.

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Mass distribution of black holes in low-mass X-ray binaries previously suggested the existence of a $ \sim 2-5M_{\odot} $ mass gap between the most massive neutron stars and the least massive black holes, while some recent evidence appears to support that this mass gap is being populated. Whether there is a mass gap or not can potentially shed light on the physics of supernova explosions that form neutron stars and black holes, although significant mass accretion of neutron stars including binary mergers may lead to the formation of mass-gap objects. In this review, I collect the compact objects that are probable black holes with masses being in the gap. Most of them are in binaries, their mass measurements are obviously subject to some uncertainties. Current observations are still unable to confidently infer an absence or presence of the mass gap. Ongoing and future surveys are expected to build the mass spectrum of black holes which can be used to constrain the process of their formation especially in binaries. I describe the theoretical predictions for the formation of black holes in various types of binaries, and present some prospects of searching for black holes via electromagnetic and gravitational wave observations.

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On the gravitational lensing interpretation of three gravitational wave detections in the mass gap by LIGO and Virgo

Cited by 5 publications

References 29 publications

Discovering gravitationally lensed gravitational waves: predicted rates, candidate selection, and localization with the Vera Rubin Observatory

Discovering gravitationally lensed gravitational waves: predicted rates, candidate selection, and localization with the Vera Rubin Observatory

Strongly Lensed Transient Sources: A Review

On the Neutron Star/Black Hole Mass Gap and Black Hole Searches

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