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Using ISS telescopes for electromagnetic follow-up of gravitational wave detections of NS-NS and NS-BH mergers

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Abstract

The International Space Station offers a unique platform for rapid and inexpensive deployment of space telescopes. A scientific opportunity of great potential later this decade is the use of telescopes for the electromagnetic follow-up of ground-based gravitational wave detections of neutron star and black hole mergers. We describe this possibility for OpTIIX, an ISS technology demonstration of a 1.5 m diffraction limited optical telescope assembled in space, and ISS-Lobster, a wide-field imaging X-ray telescope now under study as a potential NASA mission. Both telescopes will be mounted on pointing platforms, allowing rapid positioning to the source of a gravitational wave event. Electromagnetic follow-up rates of several per year appear likely, offering a wealth of complementary science on the mergers of black holes and neutron stars.

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Notes

  1. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/benefits

  2. Advanced Virgo documentation and notes https://wwwcascina.virgo.infn.it/advirgo/docs.html

  3. The sensitivity improvement from requiring an EM coincidence depends on both the gravitational-wave background rejection factor, and the empirical shape of the background about the threshold of interest. The factor of 1.5 used in this calculation is consistent with a factor of 10\(^{7}\) GW background rejection from the requirement of a prompt short gamma-ray coincidence within 5 sec and X-ray afterglow within 100 deg\(^{2}\), and a GW background distributed approximately exponentially with rate \(\sim \) 100\(^{-\text {SNR}}\) about SNR=10 (e.g. the two-detector NS/NS background in [4], Fig. 3).

  4. http://www.heasarc.nasa.gov/Tools/w3pimms.html

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Astrophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA

    J. Camp, S. Barthelmy, L. Blackburn, K. G. Carpenter, N. Gehrels, J. Kanner, F. E. Marshall, J. L. Racusin & T. Sakamoto

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  1. J. Camp
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  2. S. Barthelmy
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  3. L. Blackburn
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  4. K. G. Carpenter
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  5. N. Gehrels
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  6. J. Kanner
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  7. F. E. Marshall
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  8. J. L. Racusin
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  9. T. Sakamoto
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Correspondence to L. Blackburn.

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Camp, J., Barthelmy, S., Blackburn, L. et al. Using ISS telescopes for electromagnetic follow-up of gravitational wave detections of NS-NS and NS-BH mergers. Exp Astron 36, 505–522 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10686-013-9343-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10686-013-9343-4

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