Search for Gravitational-wave Inspiral Signals Associated with Short Gamma-ray Bursts During Ligo's Fifth and Virgo's First Science Run

• Main Authors: Barsotti, Lisa (Contributor), Blackburn, Lindy L. (Contributor), Bodiya, Timothy Paul (Contributor), Cao, Jianshu (Contributor), Corbitt, Thomas R. (Contributor), Donovan, Frederick J. (Contributor), Duke, I. (Contributor), Evans, Matthew J. (Contributor), Foley, S. (Contributor), Fritschel, Peter K. (Contributor), Harry, Gregory (Contributor), Hughey, Barbara (Contributor), Katsavounidis, Erotokritos (Contributor), MacInnis, Myron E. (Contributor), Markowitz, Jared John (Contributor), Mason, Kenneth R. (Contributor), Matichard, Fabrice (Contributor), Mavalvala, Nergis (Contributor)
• Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Chemistry (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. School of Science (Contributor), MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research (Contributor)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: IOP Publishing, 2013-01-30T19:14:57Z.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

Progenitor scenarios for short gamma-ray bursts (short GRBs) include coalescenses of two neutron stars or a neutron star and black hole, which would necessarily be accompanied by the emission of strong gravitational waves. We present a search for these known gravitational-wave signatures in temporal and directional coincidence with 22 GRBs that had sufficient gravitational-wave data available in multiple instruments during LIGO's fifth science run, S5, and Virgo's first science run, VSR1. We find no statistically significant gravitational-wave candidates within a [ - 5, + 1) s window around the trigger time of any GRB. Using the Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney U-test, we find no evidence for an excess of weak gravitational-wave signals in our sample of GRBs. We exclude neutron star-black hole progenitors to a median 90% confidence exclusion distance of 6.7 Mpc.
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
David & Lucile Packard Foundation
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Carnegie Trust
Leverhulme Trust
Research Corporation