Geographic and seasonal influences on optical followup of gravitational wave events
arXiv:1610.07154 · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aa62a4
Abstract
We investigate the effects of observatory locations on the probability of discovering optical/infrared counterparts of gravitational wave sources. We show that for the LIGO--Virgo network, the odds of discovering optical/infrared (OIR) counterparts show some latitude dependence, but weak or no longitudinal dependence. A stronger effect is seen to arise from the timing of LIGO/Virgo observing runs, with northern OIR observatories having better chances of finding the counterparts in northern winters. Assuming identical technical capabilities, the tentative mid-2017 three-detector network observing favors southern OIR observatories for discovery of EM counterparts.
14 pages, 10 figures, Submitted to ApJ
References in corpus (7)
- The NumPy array: a structure for efficient numerical computation
- Kilonova Light Curves from the Disk Wind Outflows of Compact Object Mergers
- The First Two Years of Electromagnetic Follow-Up with Advanced LIGO and Virgo
- Neutron-powered precursors of kilonovae
- Parameter estimation for binary neutron-star coalescences with realistic noise during the Advanced LIGO era
- The Needle in the 100 deg2 Haystack: Uncovering Afterglows of Fermi GRBs with the Palomar Transient Factory
- Observational Selection Effects with Ground-based Gravitational Wave Detectors