The Gravity Collective: A Search for the Electromagnetic Counterpart to the Neutron Star-Black Hole Merger GW190814

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

  • Charles D. Kilpatrick
  • David A. Coulter
  • Iair Arcavi
  • Thomas G. Brink
  • Georgios Dimitriadis
  • Alexei Filippenko
  • Ryan J. Foley
  • D. Andrew Howell
  • David O. Jones
  • Daniel Kasen
  • Martin Makler
  • Anthony L. Piro
  • Cesar Rojas-Bravo
  • David J. Sand
  • Jonathan J. Swift
  • Douglas Tucker
  • WeiKang Zheng
  • Sahar S. Allam
  • James T. Annis
  • Juanita Antilen
  • And 63 others
  • Tristan G. Bachmann
  • Joshua S. Bloom
  • Clecio R. Bom
  • K. Azalee Bostroem
  • Dillon Brout
  • Jamison Burke
  • Robert E. Butler
  • Melissa Butner
  • Abdo Campillay
  • Karoli E. Clever
  • Christopher J. Conselice
  • Jeff Cooke
  • Kristen C. Dage
  • Reinaldo R. de Carvalho
  • Thomas de Jaeger
  • Shantanu Desai
  • Alyssa Garcia
  • Juan Garcia-Bellido
  • Mandeep S. S. Gill
  • Nachiket Girish
  • Na'ama Hallakoun
  • Kenneth Herner
  • Daichi Hiramatsu
  • Daniel E. Holz
  • Grace Huber
  • Adam M. Kawash
  • Curtis McCully
  • Sophia A. Medallon
  • Brian D. Metzger
  • Shaunak Modak
  • Robert Morgan
  • Ricardo R. Munoz
  • Nahir Munoz-Elgueta
  • Yukei S. Murakami
  • E. Felipe Olivares
  • Antonella Palmese
  • Kishore C. Patra
  • Maria E. S. Pereira
  • Thallis L. Pessi
  • J. Pineda-Garcia
  • Jonathan Quirola-Vasquez
  • Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz
  • Sandro Barboza Rembold
  • Armin Rest
  • Osmar Rodriguez
  • Luidhy Santana-Silva
  • Nora F. Sherman
  • Matthew R. Siebert
  • Carli Smith
  • J. Allyn Smith
  • Marcelle Soares-Santos
  • Holland Stacey
  • Benjamin E. Stahl
  • Jay Strader
  • Erika Strasburger
  • James Sunseri
  • Samaporn Tinyanont
  • Brad E. Tucker
  • Natalie Ulloa
  • Stefano Valenti
  • Sergiy S. Vasylyev
  • Matthew P. Wiesner
  • Keto D. Zhang

We present optical follow-up imaging obtained with the Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope, Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network, Nickel Telescope, Swope Telescope, and Thacher Telescope of the LIGO/Virgo gravitational wave (GW) signal from the neutron star-black hole (NSBH) merger GW190814. We searched the GW190814 localization region (19 deg(2) for the 90th percentile best localization), covering a total of 51 deg(2) and 94.6% of the two-dimensional localization region. Analyzing the properties of 189 transients that we consider as candidate counterparts to the NSBH merger, including their localizations, discovery times from merger, optical spectra, likely host galaxy redshifts, and photometric evolution, we conclude that none of these objects are likely to be associated with GW190814. Based on this finding, we consider the likely optical properties of an electromagnetic counterpart to GW190814, including possible kilonovae and short gamma-ray burst afterglows. Using the joint limits from our follow-up imaging, we conclude that a counterpart with an r-band decline rate of 0.68 mag day(-1), similar to the kilonova AT 2017gfo, could peak at an absolute magnitude of at most -17.8 mag (50% confidence). Our data are not constraining for "red" kilonovae and rule out "blue" kilonovae with M > 0.5 M (circle dot) (30% confidence). We strongly rule out all known types of short gamma-ray burst afterglows with viewing angles

Original languageEnglish
Article number258
JournalAstrophysical Journal
Volume923
Issue number2
Number of pages26
ISSN0004-637X
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2021

    Research areas

  • GRAVITATIONAL-WAVE SOURCE, GALAXY-TARGETED SEARCH, EQUATION-OF-STATE, FOLLOW-UP, HUBBLE CONSTANT, LIGHT CURVES, DATA RELEASE, PHOTOMETRY PROGRAM, RADIO COUNTERPART, STANDARD STARS

Links

ID: 301134885