First searches for optical counterparts to gravitational-wave candidate events

Aasi, J. et al. (2014) First searches for optical counterparts to gravitational-wave candidate events. Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 211(1), (doi: 10.1088/0067-0049/211/1/7)

Abstract

During the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory and Virgo joint science runs in 2009-2010, gravitational wave (GW) data from three interferometer detectors were analyzed within minutes to select GW candidate events and infer their apparent sky positions. Target coordinates were transmitted to several telescopes for follow-up observations aimed at the detection of an associated optical transient. Images were obtained for eight such GW candidates. We present the methods used to analyze the image data as well as the transient search results. No optical transient was identified with a convincing association with any of these candidates, and none of the GW triggers showed strong evidence for being astrophysical in nature. We compare the sensitivities of these observations to several model light curves from possible sources of interest, and discuss prospects for future joint GW-optical observations of this type.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Grant, Mr Alastair and MacDonald, Miss Erin and Messenger, Dr Christopher and Bell, Dr Angus and Hammond, Professor Giles and Hild, Professor Stefan and Barr, Dr Bryan and Sorazu Lucio, Dr Borja and Reid, Professor Stuart and Lawrie, Mr Craig and Evans, Mr Keith and Gill, Mr Colin and Veitch, Dr John and Heng, Professor Ik Siong and van Veggel, Dr Marielle and Newton, Dr Gavin and Torrie, Dr Calum and Graef, Dr Christian and Hendry, Professor Martin and Scott, Dr Jamie and Abernathy, Mr Matthew and Kumar, Mr Rahul and Rowan, Professor Sheila and Santiago Prieto, Mr Ricardo and Martin, Dr Iain and Robertson, Professor Norna and Cumming, Dr Alan and Cunningham, Dr Liam and Woan, Professor Graham and Hough, Professor James and Huttner, Dr Sabina and Campsie, Mr Paul and Bassiri, Mr Riccardo and Strain, Professor Kenneth and Jones, Mr Russell and Haughian, Dr Karen and Murray, Dr Peter and Pitkin, Dr Matthew
• Authors: Aasi, J., Abadie, J., Abbott, B. P., Abbott, R., Abbott, T., Abernathy, M.R., Accadia, T., Acernese, F., Adams, C., Adams, T., Adhikari, R. X., Affeldt, C., Agathos, M., Aggarwal, N., Aguiar, O. D., Ajith, P., Allen, B., Allocca, A., Amador Ceron, E., Amariutei, D., Anderson, R. A., Anderson, S. B., Anderson, W. G., Arai, K., Araya, M. C., Arceneaux, C., Areeda, J., Ast, S., Aston, S. M., Astone, P., Aufmuth, P., Aulbert, C., Austin, L., Aylott, B. E., Babak, S., Baker, P. T., Ballardin, G., Ballmer, S. W., Barayoga, J. C., Barker, D., Barnum, S. H., Barone, F., Barr, B., Barsotti, L., Barsuglia, M., Barton, M. A., Bartos, I., Bassiri, R., Basti, A., Batch, J., Bauchrowitz, J., Bauer, T. S., Bebronne, M., Behnke, B., Bejger, M., Beker, M. G., Bell, A.S., Bell, C., Belopolski, I., Bergmann, G., Berliner, J. M., Bertolini, A., Bessis, D., Betzwieser, J., Beyersdorf, P. T., Bhadbhade, T., Bilenko, I. A., Billingsley, G., Birch, J., Bitossi, M., Bizouard, M. A., Black, E., Blackburn, J. K., Blackburn, L., Blair, D., Blom, M., Bock, O., Bodiya, T. P., Boer, M., Bogan, C., Bond, C., Bondu, F., Bonelli, L., Bonnand, R., Bork, R., Born, M., Bose, S., Bosi, L., Bowers, J., Bradaschia, C., Brady, P. R., Braginsky, V. B., Branchesi, M., Brannen, C. A., Brau, J. E., Breyer, J., Briant, T., Bridges, D. O., Brillet, A., Brinkmann, M., Brisson, V., Britzger, M., Brooks, A. F., Brown, D. A., Brown, D. D., Brückner, F., Bulik, T., Bulten, H. J., Buonanno, A., Buskulic, D., Buy, C., Byer, R. L., Cadonati, L., Cagnoli, G., Calderón Bustillo, J., Calloni, E., Camp, J. B., Campsie, P., Cannon, K. C., Canuel, B., Cao, J., Capano, C. D., Carbognani, F., Carbone, L., Caride, S., Castiglia, A., Caudill, S., Cavaglià, M., Cavalier, F., Cavalieri, R., Cella, G., Cepeda, C., Cesarini, E., Chakraborty, R., Chalermsongsak, T., Chao, S., Charlton, P., Chassande-Mottin, E., Chen, X., Chen, Y., Chincarini, A., Chiummo, A., Cho, H. S., Chow, J., Christensen, N., Chu, Q., Chua, S. S. Y., Chung, S., Ciani, G., Clara, F., Clark, D. E., Clark, J. A., Cleva, F., Coccia, E., Cohadon, P.-F., Colla, A., Colombini, M., Constancio, M., Conte, A., Conte, R., Cook, D., Corbitt, T. R., Cordier, M., Cornish, N., Corsi, A., Costa, C. A., Coughlin, M. W., Coulon, J.-P., Countryman, S., Couvares, P., Coward, D. M., Cowart, M., Coyne, D. C., Craig, K., Creighton, J. D. E., Creighton, T. D., Crowder, S. G., Cumming, A., Cunningham, L., Cuoco, E., Dahl, K., Dal Canton, T., Damjanic, M., Danilishin, S. L., D'Antonio, S., Danzmann, K., Dattilo, V., Daudert, B., Daveloza, H., Davier, M., Davies, G. S., Daw, E. J., Day, R., Dayanga, T., De Rosa, R., Debreczeni, G., Degallaix, J., Del Pozzo, W., Deleeuw, E., Deléglise, S., Denker, T., Dereli, H., Dergachev, V., DeRosa, R., DeSalvo, R., Dhurandhar, S., Di Fiore, L., Di Lieto, A., Di Palma, I., Di Virgilio, A., Díaz, M., Dietz, A., Dmitry, K., Donovan, F., Dooley, K. L., Doravari, S., Drago, M., Drever, R. W. P., Driggers, J. C., Du, Z., Dumas, J.-C., Dwyer, S., Eberle, T., Edwards, M., Effler, A., Ehrens, P., Eichholz, J., Eikenberry, S. S., Endrőczi, G., Essick, R., Etzel, T., Evans, K., Evans, M., Evans, T., Factourovich, M., Fafone, V., Fairhurst, S., Fang, Q., Farr, B., Farr, W., Favata, M., Fazi, D., Fehrmann, H., Feldbaum, D., Ferrante, I., Ferrini, F., Fidecaro, F., Finn, L. S., Fiori, I., Fisher, R., Flaminio, R., Foley, E., Foley, S., Forsi, E., Forte, L. A., Fotopoulos, N., Fournier, J.-D., Franco, S., Frasca, S., Frasconi, F., Frede, M., Frei, M., Frei, Z., Freise, A., Frey, R., Fricke, T. T., Fritschel, P., Frolov, V. V., Fujimoto, M.-K., Fulda, P., Fyffe, M., Gair, J., Gammaitoni, L., Garcia, J., Garufi, F., Gehrels, N., Gemme, G., Genin, E., Gennai, A., Gergely, L., Ghosh, S., Giaime, J. A., Giampanis, S., Giardina, K. D., Giazotto, A., Gil-Casanova, S., Gill, C., Gleason, J., Goetz, E., Goetz, R., Gondan, L., González, G., Gordon, N., Gorodetsky, M. L., Gossan, S., Goßler, S., Gouaty, R., Graef, C., Graff, P. B., Granata, M., Grant, A., Gras, S., Gray, C., Greenhalgh, R. J. S., Gretarsson, A. M., Griffo, C., Grote, H., Grover, K., Grunewald, S., Guidi, G. M., Guido, C., Gushwa, K. E., Gustafson, E. K., Gustafson, R., Hall, B., Hall, E., Hammer, D., Hammond, G., Hanke, M., Hanks, J., Hanna, C., Hanson, J., Harms, J., Harry, G. M., Harry, I. W., Harstad, E. D., Hartman, M. T., Haughian, K., Hayama, K., Heefner, J., Heidmann, A., Heintze, M., Heitmann, H., Hello, P., Hemming, G., Hendry, M., Heng, I.S., Heptonstall, A. W., Heurs, M., Hild, S., Hoak, D., Hodge, K. A., Holt, K., Holtrop, M., Hong, T., Hooper, S., Horrom, T., Hosken, D. J., Hough, J., Howell, E. J., Hu, Y., Hua, Z., Huang, V., Huerta, E. A., Hughey, B., Husa, S., Huttner, S., Huynh, M., Huynh-Dinh, T., Iafrate, J., Ingram, D. R., Inta, R., Isogai, T., Ivanov, A., Iyer, B. R., Izumi, K., Jacobson, M., James, E., Jang, H., Jang, Y. J., Jaranowski, P., Jiménez-Forteza, F., Johnson, W. W., Jones, D., Jones, D. I., Jones, R., Jonker, R. J. G., Ju, L., K, H., Kalmus, P., Kalogera, V., Kandhasamy, S., Kang, G., Kanner, J. B., Kasprzack, M., Kasturi, R., Katsavounidis, E., Katzman, W., Kaufer, H., Kaufman, K., Kawabe, K., Kawamura, S., Kawazoe, F., Kéfélian, F., Keitel, D., Kelley, D. B., Kells, W., Keppel, D. G., Khalaidovski, A., Khalili, F. Y., Khazanov, E. A., Kim, B. K., Kim, C., Kim, K., Kim, N., Kim, W., Kim, Y.-M., King, E. J., King, P. J., Kinzel, D. L., Kissel, J. S., Klimenko, S., Kline, J., Koehlenbeck, S., Kokeyama, K., Kondrashov, V., Koranda, S., Korth, W. Z., Kowalska, I., Kozak, D., Kremin, A., Kringel, V., Krishnan, B., Królak, A., Kucharczyk, C., Kudla, S., Kuehn, G., Kumar, A., Kumar, P., Kumar, R., Kurdyumov, R., Kwee, P., Landry, M., Lantz, B., Larson, S., Lasky, P. D., Lawrie, C., Lazzarini, A., Le Roux, A., Leaci, P., Lebigot, E. O., Lee, C.-H., Lee, H. K., Lee, H. M., Lee, J., Lee, J., Leonardi, M., Leong, J. R., Leroy, N., Letendre, N., Levine, B., Lewis, J. B., Lhuillier, V., Li, T. G. F., Lin, A. C., Littenberg, T. B., Litvine, V., Liu, F., Liu, H., Liu, Y., Liu, Z., Lloyd, D., Lockerbie, N. A., Lockett, V., Lodhia, D., Loew, K., Logue, J., Lombardi, A. L., Lorenzini, M., Loriette, V., Lormand, M., Losurdo, G., Lough, J., Luan, J., Lubinski, M. J., Lück, H., Lundgren, A. P., Macarthur, J., MacDonald, E., Machenschalk, B., MacInnis, M., Macleod, D. M., Magana-Sandoval, F., Mageswaran, M., Mailand, K., Majorana, E., Maksimovic, I., Malvezzi, V., Man, N., Manca, G. M., Mandel, I., Mandic, V., Mangano, V., Mantovani, M., Marchesoni, F., Marion, F., Márka, S., Márka, Z., Markosyan, A., Maros, E., Marque, J., Martelli, F., Martin, I.W., Martin, R. M., Martinelli, L., Martynov, D., Marx, J. N., Mason, K., Masserot, A., Massinger, T. J., Matichard, F., Matone, L., Matzner, R. A., Mavalvala, N., May, G., Mazumder, N., Mazzolo, G., McCarthy, R., McClelland, D. E., McGuire, S. C., McIntyre, G., McIver, J., Meacher, D., Meadors, G. D., Mehmet, M., Meidam, J., Meier, T., Melatos, A., Mendell, G., Mercer, R. A., Meshkov, S., Messenger, C., Meyer, M. S., Miao, H., Michel, C., Mikhailov, E. E., Milano, L., Miller, J., Minenkov, Y., Mingarelli, C. M. F., Mitra, S., Mitrofanov, V. P., Mitselmakher, G., Mittleman, R., Moe, B., Mohan, M., Mohapatra, S. R. P., Mokler, F., Moraru, D., Moreno, G., Morgado, N., Mori, T., Morriss, S. R., Mossavi, K., Mours, B., Mow-Lowry, C. M., Mueller, C. L., Mueller, G., Mukherjee, S., Mullavey, A., Munch, J., Murphy, D., Murray, P.G., Mytidis, A., Nagy, M. F., Nanda Kumar, D., Nardecchia, I., Nash, T., Naticchioni, L., Nayak, R., Necula, V., Neri, I., Newton, G., Nguyen, T., Nishida, E., Nishizawa, A., Nitz, A., Nocera, F., Nolting, D., Normandin, M. E., Nuttall, L. K., Ochsner, E., O'Dell, J., Oelker, E., Ogin, G. H., Oh, J. J., Oh, S. H., Ohme, F., Oppermann, P., O'Reilly, B., Ortega Larcher, W., O'Shaughnessy, R., Osthelder, C., Ottaway, D. J., Ottens, R. S., Ou, J., Overmier, H., Owen, B. J., Padilla, C., Pai, A., Palomba, C., Pan, Y., Pankow, C., Paoletti, F., Paoletti, R., Papa, M. A., Paris, H., Pasqualetti, A., Passaquieti, R., Passuello, D., Pedraza, M., Peiris, P., Penn, S., Perreca, A., Phelps, M., Pichot, M., Pickenpack, M., Piergiovanni, F., Pierro, V., Pinard, L., Pindor, B., Pinto, I. M., Pitkin, M., Poeld, J., Poggiani, R., Poole, V., Poux, C., Predoi, V., Prestegard, T., Price, L. R., Prijatelj, M., Principe, M., Privitera, S., Prix, R., Prodi, G. A., Prokhorov, L., Puncken, O., Punturo, M., Puppo, P., Quetschke, V., Quintero, E., Quitzow-James, R., Raab, F. J., Rabeling, D. S., Rácz, I., Radkins, H., Raffai, P., Raja, S., Rajalakshmi, G., Rakhmanov, M., Ramet, C., Rapagnani, P., Raymond, V., Re, V., Reed, C. M., Reed, T., Regimbau, T., Reid, S., Reitze, D. H., Ricci, F., Riesen, R., Riles, K., Robertson, N.A., Robinet, F., Rocchi, A., Roddy, S., Rodriguez, C., Rodruck, M., Roever, C., Rolland, L., Rollins, J. G., Romano, J. D., Romano, R., Romanov, G., Romie, J. H., Rosińska, D., Rowan, S., Rüdiger, A., Ruggi, P., Ryan, K., Salemi, F., Sammut, L., Sandberg, V., Sanders, J., Sannibale, V., Santiago Prieto, I., Saracco, E., Sassolas, B., Sathyaprakash, B. S., Saulson, P. R., Savage, R., Schilling, R., Schnabel, R., Schofield, R. M. S., Schreiber, E., Schuette, D., Schulz, B., Schutz, B. F., Schwinberg, P., Scott, J., Scott, S. M., Seifert, F., Sellers, D., Sengupta, A. S., Sentenac, D., Sergeev, A., Shaddock, D., Shah, S., Shahriar, M. S., Shaltev, M., Shapiro, B., Shawhan, P., Shoemaker, D. H., Sidery, T. L., Siellez, K., Siemens, X., Sigg, D., Simakov, D., Singer, A., Singer, L., Sintes, A. M., Skelton, G. R., Slagmolen, B. J. J., Slutsky, J., Smith, J. R., Smith, M. R., Smith, R. J. E., Smith-Lefebvre, N. D., Soden, K., Son, E. J., Sorazu, B., Souradeep, T., Sperandio, L., Staley, A., Steinert, E., Steinlechner, J., Steinlechner, S., Steplewski, S., Stevens, D., Stochino, A., Stone, R., Strain, K.A., Strigin, S., Stroeer, A. S., Sturani, R., Stuver, A. L., Summerscales, T. Z., Susmithan, S., Sutton, P. J., Swinkels, B., Szeifert, G., Tacca, M., Talukder, D., Tang, L., Tanner, D. B., Tarabrin, S. P., Taylor, R., ter Braack, A. P. M., Thirugnanasambandam, M. P., Thomas, M., Thomas, P., Thorne, K. A., Thorne, K. S., Thrane, E., Tiwari, V., Tokmakov, K. V., Tomlinson, C., Toncelli, A., Tonelli, M., Torre, O., Torres, C. V., Torrie, C.I., Travasso, F., Traylor, G., Tse, M., Ugolini, D., Unnikrishnan, C. S., Vahlbruch, H., Vajente, G., Vallisneri, M., van den Brand, J. F. J., Van Den Broeck, C., van der Putten, S., van der Sluys, M. V., van Heijningen, J., van Veggel, A.A., Vass, S., Vasúth, M., Vaulin, R., Vecchio, A., Vedovato, G., Veitch, J., Veitch, P. J., Venkateswara, K., Verkindt, D., Verma, S., Vetrano, F., Viceré, A., Vincent-Finley, R., Vinet, J.-Y., Vitale, S., Vlcek, B., Vo, T., Vocca, H., Vorvick, C., Vousden, W. D., Vrinceanu, D., Vyachanin, S. P., Wade, A., Wade, L., Wade, M., Waldman, S. J., Walker, M., Wallace, L., Wan, Y., Wang, J., Wang, M., Wang, X., Wanner, A., Ward, R. L., Was, M., Weaver, B., Wei, L.-W., Weinert, M., Weinstein, A. J., Weiss, R., Welborn, T., Wen, L., Wessels, P., West, M., Westphal, T., Wette, K., Whelan, J. T., Whitcomb, S. E., White, D. J., Whiting, B. F., Wibowo, S., Wiesner, K., Wilkinson, C., Williams, L., Williams, R., Williams, T., Willis, J. L., Willke, B., Wimmer, M., Winkelmann, L., Winkler, W., Wipf, C. C., Wittel, H., Woan, G., Worden, J., Yablon, J., Yakushin, I., Yamamoto, H., Yancey, C. C., Yang, H., Yeaton-Massey, D., Yoshida, S., Yum, H., Yvert, M., Zadrożny, A., Zanolin, M., Zendri, J.-P., Zhang, F., Zhang, L., Zhao, C., Zhu, H., Zhu, X. J., Zotov, N., Zucker, M. E., Zweizig, a. J., Akerlof, C., Baltay, C., Bloom, J. S., Cao, Y., Cenko, S. B., Ćwiek, A., Ćwiok, M., Dhillon, V., Fox, D. B., Gal-Yam, A., Kasliwal, M. M., Klotz, A., Laas-Bourez, M., Laher, R. R., Law, N. M., Majcher, A., Małek, K., Mankiewicz, L., Nawrocki, K., Nissanke, S., Nugent, P. E., Ofek, E. O., Opiela, R., Piotrowski, L., Poznanski, D., Rabinowitz, D., Rapoport, S., Richards, J. W., Schmidt, B., Siudek, M., Sokołowski, M., Steele, I. A., Sullivan, M., Żarnecki, A. F., and Zheng, W.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Electronics and Nanoscale Engineering; College of Science and Engineering > School of Physics and Astronomy
• Research Centre: College of Science and Engineering > School of Physics and Astronomy > Institute for Gravitational Research
• Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series
• ISSN: 0067-0049
• ISSN (Online): 1538-4365