Ultrahigh-energy neutrino follow-up of gravitational wave events GW150914 and GW151226 with the Pierre Auger Observatory

Abstract

On September 14, 2015 the Advanced LIGO detectors observed their first gravitational-wave (GW) transient GW150914. This was followed by a second GW event observed on December 26, 2015. Both events were inferred to have arisen from the merger of black holes in binary systems. Such a system may emit neutrinos if there are magnetic fields and disk debris remaining from the formation of the two black holes. With the surface detector array of the Pierre Auger Observatory we can search for neutrinos with energy Eν above 100 PeV from point-like sources across the sky with equatorial declination from about −65• to +60• , and in particular from a fraction of the 90% confidence-level (CL) inferred positions in the sky of GW150914 and GW151226. A targeted search for highly-inclined extensive air showers, produced either by interactions of downward-going 4 neutrinos of all flavors in the atmosphere or by the decays of tau leptons originating from tauneutrino interactions in the Earth's crust (Earth-skimming neutrinos), yielded no candidates in the Auger data collected within ±500 s around or 1 day after the coordinated universal time (UTC) of GW150914 and GW151226, as well as in the same search periods relative to the UTC time of the GW candidate event LVT151012. From the non-observation we constrain the amount of energy radiated in ultrahigh-energy neutrinos from such remarkable events.PACS numbers: 95.55. Vj, 95.85.Ry, 98.70.Sa

A Search for Low-energy Neutrinos Correlated with Gravitational Wave Events GW 150914, GW 151226, and GW 170104 with the Borexino Detector

“…Together with the measured oscillation mass differences [38] it leads to a constraint on the maximum neutrino mass m 1 , m 2 , m 3 of 70 meV. consistent with the time window chosen in [4][5][6][7]. Two visible energy ranges are used in this analysis, the first is from 0.25 MeV to 15 MeV and the second extends from 0.4 to 15 MeV.…”

“…Usage of the LIGO-determined distance for GW150914, GW151226 and GW170104 and relation (5) gives E(BH-BH → ν e ) ≤ 4.0 × 10 61 erg. This value could be compared with the energy emitted in the GW chan-nel that is claimed to be around 2 solar masses per single GW, 2M ⊙ = 3.6×10 54 erg.…”

“…Cerenkov neutrino telecopes (ANTARES, IceCube [4]) and Pierre Auger Observatory [5] have searched for high energy neutrinos above 100 GeV and 100 PeV respectively. KamLAND has searched for inverse beta decay (IBD) antineutrino events with energies in the range (1.8 − 111) MeV [6] and Super-Kamiokande has reported the results for neutrino signals in neutrino energy range from 3.5 MeV to 100 PeV [7].…”

“…The observation of two gravitational wave events GW150914 and GW151226 and the candidate LVT151012 by the LIGO experiment [1][2][3] triggered an intensive follow-up campaign in neutrino detectors [4][5][6][7]. Cerenkov neutrino telecopes (ANTARES, IceCube [4]) and Pierre Auger Observatory [5] have searched for high energy neutrinos above 100 GeV and 100 PeV respectively.…”

Search for high-energy neutrinos from gravitational wave event GW151226 and candidate LVT151012 with ANTARES and IceCube

“…The GW signals were followed up by a broad multimessenger observation campaign, covering the full electromagnetic spectrum [4] as well as neutrinos [5][6][7]. Data from the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor on the Fermi satellite [8] indicate a signal that could be associated with the first merger observed, GW150914, although this signal is in tension with nondetection by INTEGRAL [9].…”