Artículos de revistas
A DARK ENERGY CAMERA SEARCH FOR AN OPTICAL COUNTERPART TO THE FIRST ADVANCED LIGO GRAVITATIONAL WAVE EVENT GW150914
Fecha
2016-06-01Registro en:
Astrophysical Journal Letters. Bristol: Iop Publishing Ltd, v. 823, n. 2, 6 p., 2016.
2041-8205
10.3847/2041-8205/823/2/L33
WOS:000377031700012
WOS000377031700012.pdf
Autor
Fermilab Natl Accelerator Lab
Univ Chicago
Harvard Smithsonian Ctr Astrophys
Univ Penn
Univ Illinois
STScI
Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp)
Natl Opt Astron Observ
UCL
Rhodes Univ
Princeton Univ
Univ Cambridge
CNRS
Univ Paris 06
Carnegie Observ
Syracuse Univ
Stanford Univ
SLAC Natl Accelerator Lab
Univ Portsmouth
Lab Interinst & Astron LIneA
Observ Nacl
IEEC CSIC
Barcelona Inst Sci & Technol
NASA
Univ Maryland
Ohio Univ
Univ Southampton
Excellence Cluster Universe
Univ Munich
CALTECH
Univ Michigan
Cardiff Univ
Univ Arizona
Penn State Univ
Los Alamos Natl Lab
CIEMAT
Univ Calif Berkeley
Ohio State Univ
Australian Astron Observ
Texas A&M Univ
Universidade de São Paulo (USP)
NYU
Columbia Astrophys Lab
Inst Catalana Recerca & Estudis Avancats
Max Planck Inst Extraterr Phys
Univ Sussex
Brookhaven Natl Lab
Argonne Natl Lab
Institución
Resumen
We report the results of a deep search for an optical counterpart to the gravitational wave (GW) event GW150914, the first trigger from the Advanced LIGO GW detectors. We used the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) to image a 102 deg(2) area, corresponding to 38% of the initial trigger high-probability sky region and to 11% of the revised high-probability region. We observed in the i and z bands at 4-5, 7, and 24 days after the trigger. The median 5 sigma point-source limiting magnitudes of our search images are i = 22.5 and z = 21.8 mag. We processed the images through a difference-imaging pipeline using templates from pre-existing Dark Energy Survey data and publicly available DECam data. Due to missing template observations and other losses, our effective search area subtends 40 deg(2), corresponding to a 12% total probability in the initial map and 3% in the final map. In this area, we search for objects that decline significantly between days 4-5 and day 7, and are undetectable by day 24, finding none to typical magnitude limits of i = 21.5, 21.1, 20.1 for object colors (i - z) = 1, 0, - 1, respectively. Our search demonstrates the feasibility of a dedicated search program with DECam and bodes well for future research in this emerging field.