Kavli Affiliate: Michael Fausnaugh
| First 5 Authors: Geoffrey Mo, Rahul Jayaraman, Michael Fausnaugh, Erik Katsavounidis, George R. Ricker
| Summary:
In 2017, the LIGO and Virgo gravitational wave (GW) detectors, in conjunction
with electromagnetic (EM) astronomers, observed the first GW multi-messenger
astrophysical event, the binary neutron star (BNS) merger GW170817. This marked
the beginning of a new era in multi-messenger astrophysics. To discover further
GW multi-messenger events, we explore the synergies between the Transiting
Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and GW observations triggered by the
LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaboration (LVK) detector network. TESS’s extremely wide
field of view of ~2300 deg^2 means that it could overlap with large swaths of
GW localizations, which can often span hundreds of deg^2 or more. In this work,
we use a recently developed transient detection pipeline to search TESS data
collected during the LVK’s third observing run, O3, for any EM counterparts. We
find no obvious counterparts brighter than about 17th magnitude in the TESS
bandpass. Additionally, we present end-to-end simulations of BNS mergers,
including their detection in GWs and simulations of light curves, to identify
TESS’s kilonova discovery potential for the LVK’s next observing run (O4). In
the most optimistic case, TESS will observe up to one GW-found BNS merger
counterpart per year. However, TESS may also find up to five kilonovae which
did not trigger the LVK network, emphasizing that EM-triggered GW searches may
play a key role in future kilonova detections. We also discuss how TESS can
help place limits on EM emission from binary black hole mergers, and rapidly
exclude large sky areas for poorly localized GW events.
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