GW170817 : Observation of gravitational waves from a binary neutron star inspiral

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Abbott, B. P. and Birney, R. and Jawahar, S. and Lockerbie, N. A. and Reid, S. and Tokmakov, K. V., LIGO Scientific Collaboration, Virgo Collaboration (2017) GW170817 : Observation of gravitational waves from a binary neutron star inspiral. Physical Review Letters, 119 (16). 161101. ISSN 1079-7114 (https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.161101)

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Abstract

On August 17, 2017 at 12∶41:04 UTC the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo gravitational-wave detectors made their first observation of a binary neutron star inspiral. The signal, GW170817, was detected with a combined signal-to-noise ratio of 32.4 and a false-alarm-rate estimate of less than one per 8.0×104  years. We infer the component masses of the binary to be between 0.86 and 2.26  M⊙, in agreement with masses of known neutron stars. Restricting the component spins to the range inferred in binary neutron stars, we find the component masses to be in the range 1.17–1.60  M⊙, with the total mass of the system 2.74+0.04−0.01M⊙. The source was localized within a sky region of 28  deg2(90% probability) and had a luminosity distance of 40+8−14  Mpc, the closest and most precisely localized gravitational-wave signal yet. The association with the γ-ray burst GRB 170817A, detected by Fermi-GBM 1.7 s after the coalescence, corroborates the hypothesis of a neutron star merger and provides the first direct evidence of a link between these mergers and short γ-ray bursts. Subsequent identification of transient counterparts across the electromagnetic spectrum in the same location further supports the interpretation of this event as a neutron star merger. This unprecedented joint gravitational and electromagnetic observation provides insight into astrophysics, dense matter, gravitation, and cosmology.

ORCID iDs

Abbott, B. P., Birney, R., Jawahar, S. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4945-691X, Lockerbie, N. A. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1678-3260, Reid, S. and Tokmakov, K. V. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2808-6593;
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