Modeling the afterglow of the possible Fermi-GBM event associated with GW150914

Abstract

We model the possible afterglow of the Fermi GBM event associated with LIGO detection GW150914, under the assumption that the gamma-ray are produced by a short GRB-like relativistic outflow. We model GW150914-GBM as both a weak, on-axis short GRB and normal short GRB seen far off axis. Given the large uncertainty in the position of GW150914, we determine that the best chance of finding the afterglow is with ASKAP or possibly the MWA, with the flux from an off-axis short GRB reaching 0.2 - 4 mJy (0.12 - 16 mJy) at 150 MHz (863.5 MHz) by 1 - 12 months after the initial event. At low frequencies, the source would evolve from a hard to soft spectrum over several months. The radio afterglow would be detectable for several months to years after it peaks, meaning the afterglow may still be detectable and increasing in brightness NOW (mid-July 2016). With a localization from the MWA or ASKAP, the afterglow would be detectable at higher radio frequencies with the ATCA and in X-rays with Chandra or XMM.

7 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. Accepted by ApJL

References in corpus (6)

• Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger
• The rate, luminosity function and time delay of non-Collapsar short GRBs
• Gamma-Ray Burst afterglow scaling coefficients for general density profile
• Electromagnetic Afterglows Associated with Gamma-Ray Emission Coincident with Binary Black Hole Merger Event GW150914
• XMM-Newton Slew Survey observations of the gravitational wave event GW150914
• Jitter radiation images, spectra, and light curves from a relativistic spherical blastwave

Cited by in corpus (21)

• The X-ray counterpart to the gravitational wave event GW 170817
• Off-axis emission of short gamma-ray bursts and the detectability of electromagnetic counterparts of gravitational wave detected binary mergers
• Short GRBs at the dawn of the gravitational wave era
• The Gamma-ray Bursts fundamental plane correlation as a cosmological tool
• Gamma-Ray Bursts, Quasars, Baryonic Acoustic Oscillations, and Supernovae Ia: new statistical insights and cosmological constraints
• Prompt Electromagnetic Transients from Binary Black Hole Mergers
• Gamma Ray Burst Prompt correlations
• Constraints on cosmological viscosity and self interacting dark matter from gravitational wave observations
• GW150914-like Black Holes as Galactic High-Energy Sources
• Deep and rapid observations of strong-lensing galaxy clusters within the sky localisation of GW170814
• Probing extra dimension through gravitational wave observations of compact binaries and their electromagnetic counterparts
• J-GEM Follow-Up Observations of The Gravitational Wave Source GW151226
• Strategies for Finding Prompt Radio Counterparts to Gravitational Wave Transients with the Murchison Widefield Array
• Astrophysical Prior Information and Gravitational-wave Parameter Estimation
• Test of the Weak Equivalence Principle using LIGO observations of GW150914 and Fermi observations of GBM transient 150914
• The JAGWAR Prowls LIGO/Virgo O3 Paper I: Radio Search of a Possible Multi-Messenger Counterpart of the Binary Black Hole Merger Candidate S191216ap
• Lorentz invariance violation and simultaneous emission of electromagnetic and gravitational waves
• Damping of gravitational waves in f(R) gravity
• Radio follow-up of a candidate gamma-ray transient in the sky localization area of GW170608
• Gamma-Ray Bursts, Supernovae Ia and Baryon Acoustic Oscillations: a binned cosmological analysis
• Short-duration gamma-ray bursts from Kerr-Newman black hole mergers