First Gravitational-Wave Burst GW150914: Part II. MASTER Optical Follow-Up Observations

Abstract

The Advanced LIGO observatory recently reported the first direct detection of gravitational waves predicted by Einstein (1916). We report on the first optical observations of the Gravitational Wave (GW) source GW150914 error region with the Global MASTER Robotic Net. We detected several optical transients, which proved to be unconnected with the GW event. Our result is consistent with the assumption that gravitational waves were produced by a binary black hole merger. The detection of the event confirmed the main prediction of the population synthesis performed with the "Scenario Machine" formulated in Lipunov1997b.

arXiv comment11 pages, 7 figures, 4 tables

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• TOROS Optical follow-up of the Advanced LIGO-VIRGO O2 second observational campaign
• Extreme resonant eccentricity excitation of stars around merging black-hole binary
• Observations of Near-Earth Optical Transients with the Lomonosov Space Observatory
• Polarization states of gravitational waves detected by LIGO-Virgo antennas
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• Experimentally, How Dark Are Black Hole Mergers?