Strategies for Finding Prompt Radio Counterparts to Gravitational Wave Transients with the Murchison Widefield Array. (2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kaplan, D. L.; Murphy, T.; Rowlinson, A.; Croft, S. D.; Wayth, R. B.; Trott, C. M.
• Is Part Of: Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia. Volume 33(2016)
• Publication Date: 2016
• Subjects: gamma-ray burst: general, -- gravitational waves, -- methods: observational, -- radio continuum: general; Astronomy -- Periodicals; Southern sky (Astronomy) -- Periodicals; Astrophysics -- Periodicals; Periodicals; 520.5
• DOI: 10.1017/pasa.2016.43
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1323-3580

Abstract

Abstract: Wepresent and evaluate several strategies to search for prompt, low-frequency radio emission associated with gravitational wave transients using the Murchison Widefield Array. As we are able to repoint the Murchison Widefield Array on timescales of tens of seconds, we can search for the dispersed radio signal that has been predicted to originate along with or shortly after a neutron star-neutron star merger. We find that given the large, 600 deg 2 instantaneous field of view of the Murchison Widefield Array, we can cover a significant fraction of the predicted gravitational wave error region, although due to the complicated geometry of the latter, we only cover > 50% of the error region for approximately 5% of events, and roughly 15% of events will be located < 10° from the Murchison Widefield Array pointing centre such that they will be covered in the radio images. For optimal conditions, our limiting flux density for a 10-s long transient would be 0.1 Jy, increasing to about 1 Jy for a wider range of events. This corresponds to luminosity limits of 10 38−39 erg s −1 based on expectations for the distances of the gravitational wave transients, which should be sufficient to detect or significantly constrain a range of models for prompt emission.