Methods and results of a search for gravitational waves associated with gamma-ray bursts using the GEO 600, LIGO, and Virgo detectors

Aasi, J. and Abbott, B. P. and Abbott, R. and Abbott, T. and Abernathy, M. R. and Acernese, F. and Ackley, K. and Adams, C. and Adams, T. and Addesso, P. and Adhikari, R. X. and Affeldt, C. and Agathos, M. and Aggarwal, N. and Aguiar, O. D. and Ajith, P. and Alemic, A. and Allen, B. and Allocca, A. and Amariutei, D. and Andersen, M. and Anderson, R. A. and Anderson, S. B. and Anderson, W. G. and Arai, K. and Araya, M. C. and Arceneaux, C. and Areeda, J. S. and Ast, S. and Aston, S. M. and Debreczeni, Gergely and Endrőczi, Gábor and Frei, Zsolt and Gondán, László and Nagy-Egri, Máté Ferenc and Rácz, István and Raffai, Péter and Vasúth, Mátyás Zsolt (2014) Methods and results of a search for gravitational waves associated with gamma-ray bursts using the GEO 600, LIGO, and Virgo detectors. PHYSICAL REVIEW D, 89 (12). ISSN 2470-0010

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Abstract

In this paper we report on a search for short-duration gravitational wave bursts in the frequencyrange 64 Hz–1792 Hz associated with gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), using data from GEO 600 andone of the LIGO or Virgo detectors. We introduce the method of a linear search grid to analyseGRB events with large sky localisation uncertainties, for example the localisations provided by theFermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM). Coherent searches for gravitational waves (GWs) can becomputationally intensive when the GRB sky position is not well-localised, due to the correctionsrequired for the difference in arrival time between detectors. Using a linear search grid we are ableto reduce the computational cost of the analysis by a factor of O(10) for GBM events. Furthermore,we demonstrate that our analysis pipeline can improve upon the sky localisation of GRBs detectedby the GBM, if a high-frequency GW signal is observed in coincidence. We use the method ofthe linear grid in a search for GWs associated with 129 GRBs observed satellite-based gamma-rayexperiments between 2006 and 2011. The GRBs in our sample had not been previously analysedfor GW counterparts. A fraction of our GRB events are analysed using data from GEO 600 whilethe detector was using squeezed-light states to improve its sensitivity; this is the first search forGWs using data from a squeezed-light interferometric observatory. We find no evidence for GWsignals, either with any individual GRB in this sample or with the population as a whole. For eachGRB we place lower bounds on the distance to the progenitor, under an assumption of a fixed GWemission energy of 10−2 M c2, with a median exclusion distance of 0.8 Mpc for emission at 500 Hzand 0.3 Mpc at 1 kHz. The reduced computational cost associated with a linear search grid willenable rapid searches for GWs associated with Fermi GBM events once the Advanced LIGO andVirgo detectors begin operation.

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