Using galaxy formation simulations to optimize LIGO follow-up observations

Elisa Antolini, Ilaria Caiazzo, Romeel Davé, Jeremy S. Heyl

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The recent discovery of gravitational radiation from merging black holes poses a challenge of how to organize the electromagnetic follow-up of gravitational-wave events as well as observed bursts of neutrinos. We propose a technique to select the galaxies that are most likely to host the event given some assumptions of whether the particular event is associated with recent star formation, low-metallicity stars or simply proportional to the total stellar mass in the galaxy. We combine data from the 2-MASS Photometric Redshift Galaxy Catalogue with results from galaxy formation simulations to develop observing strategies that potentially reduce the area of sky to search by up to a factor of 2 relative to an unweighted search of galaxies, and a factor of 20 to a search over the entire LIGO localization region.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2212-2216
JournalMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume466
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 17 Dec 2016

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • gravitational waves
  • methods: observational
  • galaxies: distances and redshifts

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