Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope

Targeted search for gravitational-wave counterparts in Fermi-GBM

L. Blackburn
M. S. Briggs, E. Burns, J. Camp, A. Goldstein, T. Littenberg, J. Veitch, J. Racusin, P. Shawhan, L. Singer, B. Zhang

Abstract:

Advanced LIGO (aLIGO) began taking its first science data in September 2015, and is on track for reaching the expected sensitivity required for regular observation of gravitational-wave (GW) events over the next few years. We have implemented an automated targeted search in GBM survey data which can follow-up GW candidates from aLIGO within several hours of the GW trigger, searching for gamma-ray transients associated with binary mergers of neutron stars and black holes, as well as un-modeled GW bursts. By running a multi-detector ground-based analysis about the time and sky-location of a GW event, we are able to search a factor of a few below nominal flux sensitivity for on-board triggering, as well as characterize in an automated way the high-energy sky accessible to GBM about the time of interesting GW candidates. An earlier end-to-end version of the search was exercised on archival data from GBM and LIGO-Virgo taken in 2010, and the pipeline has since been updated for online operation. In this poster, we provide technical details of the GBM analysis, describe possible sources and backgrounds for the analysis, and discuss what targeted GBM follow-up can provide for the wider multi-messenger GW community.