Search for Post-merger Gravitational Waves from the Remnant of the Binary Neutron Star Merger GW170817

Abstract

The first observation of a binary neutron star (NS) coalescence by the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo gravitational-wave (GW) detectors offers an unprecedented opportunity to study matter under the most extreme conditions. After such a merger, a compact remnant is left over whose nature depends primarily on the masses of the inspiraling objects and on the equation of state of nuclear matter. This could be either a black hole (BH) or an NS, with the latter being either long-lived or too massive for stability implying delayed collapse to a BH. Here, we present a search for GWs from the remnant of the binary NS merger GW170817 using data from Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo. We search for short-(1 s) and intermediate-duration (500 s) signals, which include GW emission from a hypermassive NS or supramassive NS, respectively. We find no signal from the post-merger remnant. Our derived strain upper limits are more than an order of magnitude larger than those predicted by most models. For short signals, our best upper limit on the root sum square of the GW strain emitted from 1-4 kHz is =´--h 2.1 10 Hz

Modelling double neutron stars: radio and gravitational waves

“…If the post merger remnant is a NS, then it may emit gravitational-waves observable by aLIGO and Virgo. There have been searches for gravitational waves from the remnant of GW170817, though no further GWs were detected (Abbott et al 2017f). The post-merger remnant may be a rapidly rotating NS with a high magnetic field (a magnetar), visible in X-ray and gamma rays (e.g.…”

Quantum Black Holes in the Sky

“…The final mass of GW170817 is within ∼ 2 − 3M which could form either a BH or a neutron star (NS). A BNS merger can end up in four possible ways: [144]: ; combining all harmonics with frequencies n × f , with n ∈ N) around the merger for the BNS gravitational-wave event GW170817, observed through cross-correlating the two LIGO detectors [3]. The possible resonance peaks of echoes found in this plot are marked with a green squares.…”

Finite tidal effects in GW170817: Observational evidence or model assumptions?

“…For binary neutron stars, the frequencies during this phase fall within the sensitive range of current ground-based interferometers, such as the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) [5] or the Virgo detector [6]. In contrast, merger and postmerger GW emission is dominated by frequencies > 1 kHz, for which the current detection range is considerably smaller, making observations of this phase unlikely (compare [7][8][9]).…”