Pan-STARRS and PESSTO search for an optical counterpart to the LIGO gravitational-wave source GW150914

Smartt, S. J.; Chambers, K.; Smith, K.; Huber, M. E.; Young, D. R.; Cappellaro, E.; Wright, D. E.; Coughlin, M. W.; Schultz, A. S. B.; Denneau, L.; Flewelling, H.; Heinze, A.; Magnier, E. A.; Primak, N.; Rest, A.; Sherstyuk, A.; Stalder, B.; Stubbs, C. W.; Tonry, J.; Waters, C.; Willman, M.; Anderson, J. P.; Baltay, C.; Botticella, M. T.; Campbell, H.; Dennefeld, M.; Chen, Ting-Wan; Valle, M. Della; Elias‐Rosa, N.; Fraser, M.; Inserra, C.; Kankare, E.; Kotak, R.; Kupfer, Thomas; Harmanen, J.; Galbany, L.; Gal-Yam, A.; Guillou, L. Le; Lyman, J.; Maguire, K.; Mitra, Ayan; Nicholl, M.; Rabinowitz, D.; Razza, Alessandro; Sollerman, J.; Smith, M.; Terreran, G.; Valenti, S.; Gibson, Brad K.; Goggia, T.

doi:10.1093/mnras/stw1893

Cited by 53 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 132 publications

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“…For recent reviews of kilonova emission, see , Tanaka (2016), and Metzger (2017). Kilonova emission is a good candidate for optical and near infrared follow-up observations after the detection of GWs (Smartt et al 2016;Soares-Santos et al 2016;Kasliwal et al 2016;Morokuma et al 2016;Cowperthwaite et al 2016;Yoshida et al 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Properties of Kilonovae from Dynamical and Post-merger Ejecta of Neutron Star Mergers

Tanaka

Kato

Gaigalas

et al. 2018

ApJ

152

154

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Ejected material from neutron star mergers give rise to electromagnetic emission powered by radioactive decays of r-process nuclei, which is so called kilonova or macronova. While properties of the emission are largely affected by opacities in the ejected material, available atomic data for r-process elements are still limited. We perform atomic structure calculations for r-process elements: Se (Z = 34), Ru (Z = 44), Te (Z = 52), Ba (Z = 56), Nd (Z = 60), and Er (Z = 68). We confirm that the opacities from bound-bound transitions of open f-shell, Lanthanide elements (Nd and Er) are higher than those of the other elements over a wide wavelength range. The opacities of open s-shell (Ba), p-shell (Se and Te), and d-shell (Ru) elements are lower than those of open f-shell elements and their transitions are concentrated in the ultraviolet wavelengths. We show that the optical brightness can be different by > 2 mag depending on the element abundances in the ejecta such that post-merger, Lanthanide-free ejecta produce brighter and bluer optical emission. Such blue emission from post-merger ejecta can be observed from the polar directions if the mass of the preceding dynamical ejecta in these regions is small. For the ejecta mass of 0.01 M ⊙ , observed magnitudes of the blue emission will reach 21.0 mag (100 Mpc) and 22.5 mag (200 Mpc) in g and r bands within a few days after the merger, which are detectable with 1m or 2m-class telescopes.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Properties of Kilonovae from Dynamical and Post-merger Ejecta of Neutron Star Mergers

Tanaka

Kato

Gaigalas

et al. 2018

ApJ

152

154

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“…For the next few years, the typical localization of GW sources will be no better than ∼50 deg 2 . Naturally, pursuit of such large angle localizations will entail a deluge of false positives (e.g., Kasliwal et al 2016;Smartt et al 2016). As demonstrated by the steps that led to the discovery of the optical counterpart of GW170817, a costeffective approach to both minimizing the background fog of false positives and maximizing early identification is to use onsky coincidences with catalogs of nearby galaxies (e.g., Gehrels et al 2016).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Redshift Completeness of Local Galaxy Catalogs

Kulkarni

Perley

Miller

2018

ApJ

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There is considerable interest in understanding the demographics of galaxies within the local universe (defined, for our purposes, as the volume within a radius of 200 Mpc or z0.05). In this pilot paper, using supernovae (SNe) as signposts to galaxies, we investigate the redshift completeness of catalogs of nearby galaxies. In particular, type Ia SNe are bright and are good tracers of the bulk of the galaxy population, as they arise in both old and young stellar populations. Our input sample consists of SNe with redshift 0.05, discovered by the flux-limited ASAS-SN survey. We define the redshift completeness fraction (RCF) as the number of SN host galaxies with known redshift prior to SN discovery, determined, in this case, via the NASA Extragalactic Database, divided by the total number of newly discovered SNe. Using SNe Ia, we find =  RCF 78 7 6 % (90% confidence interval) for z<0.03. We examine the distribution of host galaxies with and without cataloged redshifts as a function of absolute magnitude and redshift, and, unsurprisingly, find that higher-z and fainter hosts are less likely to have a known redshift prior to the detection of the SN. However, surprisingly, some * L galaxies are also missing. We conclude with thoughts on the future improvement of RCF measurements that will be made possible from large SN samples resulting from ongoing and especially upcoming time-domain surveys.Key words: galaxies: distances and redshifts -galaxies: statistics -supernovae: general Transients in the Local UniverseTransients in the local universe provide unique insights into at least three pressing issues in modern astronomy. First, nearby events can be studied in great detail, even if their luminosities are relatively low-enabling insights into their physics. A classic example is the detection of SN 1987A in the Large Magellanic Cloud, which enabled the unambiguous localization of extragalactic neutrinos (e.g., McCray 1993). Second, nearby events can be studied demographically to high completeness. This is important both for obtaining a full understanding of how stars end their lives and for understanding the role their explosions play in their environments. For example, supernovae (SNe), the most commonly observed extragalactic transients, inject energy, momentum, and heavy elements into their surroundings. Relating star formation rate and chemical abundance to SN rates is a fundamental exercise in modern astronomy. Nearby (volume limited) SN surveys are needed to provide the latter.Third, over the last decade or so, exotic explosive sources have been identified-Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR), ultra-high energy neutrinos, and Gravitational Wave (GW) sources. The horizon for detecting these sources is limited by either physical phenomena (the Greisen-Zatespin-Kuzmin effect for UHECRs), or set by the sensitivity of GW telescopes. 5The latter consideration leads us to a distance limit of ∼200 Mpc (z0.05). As shown by the rich returns from electromagnetic studies of the neutron star coalescence even...

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“…4 (2017 Feb 18.4) and it is possibly associated to the galaxy GALEXMSC J104742.19+265006.8. The object was discovered when this region of sky was observed by Pan-STARRS (Chambers et al 2016;Smartt et al 2016) Figure 1. PESSTO classification spectra of OGLE16dmu (middle blue spectrum) and PS17bek (top red spectrum), compared to LSQ14bdq (bottom green spectrum, Nicholl et al 2015b).…”

Section: Ps17bekmentioning

confidence: 99%

Withdrawn as Duplicate: Testing the magnetar scenario for superluminous supernovae with circular polarimetry

Cikota¹,

Leloudas²,

Bulla³

et al. 2018

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters

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Superluminous supernovae (SLSNe) are at least ∼5 times more luminous than common supernovae (SNe). Especially hydrogen-poor SLSN-I are difficult to explain with conventional powering mechanisms. One possible scenario that might explain such luminosities is that SLSNe-I are powered by an internal engine, such as a magnetar or an accreting black hole. Strong magnetic fields or collimated jets can circularly polarize light. In this work, we measured circular polarization of two SLSNe-I with the FOcal Reducer and low dispersion Spectrograph (FORS2) mounted at the ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT). PS17bek, a fast evolving SLSN-I, was observed around peak, while OGLE16dmu, a slowly evolving SLSN-I, was observed 100 days after maximum. Neither SLSN shows evidence of circularly polarized light, however, these non-detections do not rule out the magnetar scenario as the powering engine for SLSNe-I. We calculate the strength of the magnetic field and the expected circular polarization as a function of distance from the magnetar, which decreases very fast. Additionally, we observed no significant linear polarization for PS17bek at four epochs, suggesting that the photosphere near peak is close to spherical symmetry.

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Pan-STARRS and PESSTO search for an optical counterpart to the LIGO gravitational-wave source GW150914

Cited by 53 publications

References 132 publications

Properties of Kilonovae from Dynamical and Post-merger Ejecta of Neutron Star Mergers

Properties of Kilonovae from Dynamical and Post-merger Ejecta of Neutron Star Mergers

The Redshift Completeness of Local Galaxy Catalogs

Withdrawn as Duplicate: Testing the magnetar scenario for superluminous supernovae with circular polarimetry

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