The Gravitational Wave Universe Toolbox

Abstract

Context. In the current multi-messenger astronomy era, it is important that information about joint gravitational wave (GW) and electromagnetic (EM) observations through short gamma-ray bursts (sGRBs) remains easily accessible to each member of the GW-EM community. The possibility for non-experts to execute quick computations of joint GW-sGRB detections should be facilitated. Aims. For this study, we constructed a model for sGRBs and added this to the framework of the previously built Gravitational Wave Universe Toolbox (GWToolbox or Toolbox). We provide expected joint GW-sGRB detection rates for different combinations of GW detectors and high-energy (HE) instruments. Methods. We employed and adapted a generic GRB model to create a computationally low-cost top-hat jet model suitable for the GWToolbox. With the Toolbox, we simulated a population of binary neutron stars (BNSs) observed by a user-specified GW detector such as LIGO, Virgo, the Einstein Telescope (ET), or the Cosmic Explorer (CE). Based on the characteristics of each binary, our model predicts the properties of a resulting sGRB, as well as its detectability for HE detectors such as Fermi/GBM, Swift/BAT, or GECAM.Results. We report predicted joint detection rates for combinations of GW detectors (LIGO and ET) with HE instruments (Fermi/GBM, Swift/BAT, and GECAM). Our findings stress the significance of the impact that ET will have on multi-messenger astronomy. While the LIGO sensitivity is currently the limiting factor regarding the number of joint detections, ET will observe BNSs at such a rate that the vast majority of detected sGRBs will have a GW counterpart observed by ET. These conclusions hold for CE as well. Additionally, since LIGO can only detect BNSs up to a redshift of ∼0.1 where few sGRBs exist, a search for sub-threshold GW signals at higher redshifts using sGRB information from HE detectors has the potential to be very successful and significantly increase the number of joint detections. Equivalently, during the ET era, GW data can assist in finding sub-threshold sGRBs, potentially increasing, for example, the number of joint ET-Fermi/GBM observations by ∼270%. Lastly, we find that our top-hat jet model underestimates the number of joint detections that include an off-axis sGRB. We corrected for this by introducing a second, wider and weaker jet component. We predict that the majority of joint detections during the LIGO/Virgo era will include an off-axis sGRB, making GRB170817A not as unlikely as one would think based on the simplest top-hat jet model. In the ET era, most joint detections will contain an on-axis sGRB.

A simulation study on the constraints of the Hubble constant using sub-threshold GW observation on double neutron star mergers

“…In the meanwhile, they can provide the positioning information of the GW, which increases the multi-wavelength follow-up efficiency. However, the coincidence fraction between a GW and GRB prompt emission is expected to be low, due to the highly collimated emission beam of GRB prompt emission (Hendriks et al 2022). However, if we consider the precursor and afterglow of a GRB, the coincidence fraction will increase.…”

“…The detection of the prompt GRB provides extra early localization and is very helpful for the host galaxy identification, wherein an independent red-shift measurement can be obtained. However, due to their highly beamed emission, the coincidence fraction between a GW and a GRB is expected to be low (Hendriks et al 2022). On the other hand, those EMCs in afterglows and kilonovae are expected to be more accessible for most of the GW signals, due to their nearly isotropic radiation distribution.…”

“…However, the energy density parameters Ω m and Ω Λ will not be constrained by the upcoming network of GW observatories, regardless of the number of events of GW with EMC. Hendriks et al (2022) showed that decreasing the GW detection threshold to a marginally tolerable purity will double the rate of joint detection of GRB and GW. It is also intuitive to suspect that the same sub-threshold strategy will lead to a larger multi-messenger catalogue with GW and their EMC.…”

Simulation Study on Constraining Gravitational Wave Propagation Speed by Gravitational Wave and Gamma-ray Burst Joint Observation on Binary Neutron Star Mergers

“…According to scientific observation runs LVC O1-O3 (Abbott et al 2019a(Abbott et al , 2023(Abbott et al , 2024 and simulative studies (such as (Hendriks et al 2023)), such a joint detection of GW/ GRB are rare (one out of ∼10 binary neutron star (BNS) merger events). In this paper, we present a simulation study on constraining v g , using GWToolbox 3 (Yi et al 2022;Hendriks et al 2023) to simulate the joint GW-GRB detection of a BNS merger event with both second and third-generation groundbased GW detectors, including aLIGO in design sensitivity (Aasi et al 2015) (design aLIGO) and Einstein Telescope (ET) (Sathyaprakash et al 2010). In comparison to similar simulative work in Nishizawa (2016), we simulated the parameterized BNS population, which is consistent with the GWTC-3 (Abbott et al 2023) catalog.…”

Flares from Merged Magnetars: Their Prospects as a New Population of Gamma-Ray Counterparts of Binary Neutron Star Mergers

“…Following the practice ofHendriks et al (2023), we use the lowest observed fluence of the sGRB catalog (Narayana Bhat et al 2016) as the fluence limit of second-duration bursts. 7 https://cosi.ssl.berkeley.edu 8 https://asd.gsfc.nasa.gov/amego/ 9 https://indico.icranet.org/event/1/contributions/777/…”