Search for Multimessenger Sources of Gravitational Waves and High-energy Neutrinos with Advanced LIGO during Its First Observing Run, ANTARES, and IceCube

Abstract

Astrophysical sources of gravitational waves, such as binary neutron star and black hole mergers or core-collapse supernovae, can drive relativistic outflows, giving rise to non-thermal high-energy emission. High-energy neutrinos are signatures of such outflows. The detection of gravitational waves and high-energy neutrinos from common sources could help establish the connection between the dynamics of the progenitor and the properties of the outflow. We searched for associated emission of gravitational waves and high-energy neutrinos from astrophysical transients with minimal assumptions using data from Advanced LIGO from its first observing run O1, and data from the Antares and IceCube neutrino observatories from the same time period. We focused on candidate events whose astrophysical origins could not be determined from a single messenger. We found no significant coincident candidate, which we used to constrain the rate density of astrophysical sources dependent on their gravitational-wave and neutrino emission processes.

Monitoring and Multi-Messenger Astronomy with IceCube

“…In the context of multi-messenger correlation, also searches for correlations between gravitational wave events detected by Advanced LIGO and high-energy neutrinos from ANTARES and IceCube have been performed. The results are also compatible with only the background [41][42][43].…”

Sustained Antarctic Research: A 21st Century Imperative

“…Sources of gravitational waves, such as neutron stars or black hole mergers, release high-energy neutrino emissions. Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory and IceCube collaborations have revealed cosmic explosions, 142,145,152 previously unseen by conventional photonic observations. The understanding of the full nature of dark matter remains aspirational.…”

Bayesian multimessenger search method for common sources of gravitational waves and high-energy neutrinos

“…Therefore the odds ratio can be used as a test statistic. We empirically characterize the required threshold values based on background data and simulations for frequentist significances, similarly to [44]. For the searches with confirmed GW detections, the simulations consist of randomly paired simulated GWs and background neutrinos from previous detections.…”

“…Besides these candidate sources, searches several searches were carried out to find the neutrino counterpart of GW discoveries [25][26][27]. A separate search was carried out to find joint events for which neither the GW nor the neutrino signal could be independently confirmed to be astrophysical [44].…”