Toward finding gravitational-wave signals from progenitors of short hard
gamma-ray bursts and orphaned afterglows
release_7cyeq477a5hwra7n2z6bcoxjmm
by
Shaon Ghosh, Sukanta Bose
2013
Abstract
With multiple observatories and missions being planned for detecting orphaned
afterglows associated with gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) we emphasize the importance
of developing data analysis strategies for searching their possible counterpart
signals in the data of gravitational wave (GW) detectors in the advanced
detector era. This is especially attractive since short hard gamma-ray bursts
(SGRBs) may have compact binary coalescences involving neutron stars (CBCNSs)
as their progenitors, which emit gravitational waves. Joint electromagnetic
(EM) and GW observations of these objects will enrich our understanding of
their beaming, energetics, galactic environment, and shed light on a host of
other outstanding questions related to them. Here we recognize some of the
astrophysical factors that determine what fraction of CBCNS sources can
generate orphaned afterglows. Pipelines already exist that target the
sky-position and time of occurrence of SGRBs, known from EM observations, to
search for their counterparts in GW detector data. Modifying them to analyze
extended periods of time in the GW data in the past of the afterglow detection,
while targeting a single sky-position, can search for GWs from the common
progenitor. We assess the improvement in GW detectability to be had from
utilizing the sky-position information. We also propose a method for improving
the detection efficiency of targeted searches of GW signals from the putative
CBCNS sources of afterglows and short gamma ray bursts in the presence of
errors in detector calibration or CBCNS waveform models used in the search. The
improvement arises from searching in a wider patch of the sky even when the
sky-position is known accurately from EM observations and utilizes the
covariance of the errors in waveform parameters with those in the sky position.
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