On the gravitational lensing interpretation of three gravitational wave detections in the mass gap by LIGO and Virgo

Author:

Bianconi Matteo1ORCID,Smith Graham P1ORCID,Nicholl Matt12ORCID,Ryczanowski Dan1ORCID,Richard Johan3ORCID,Jauzac Mathilde4567ORCID,Massey Richard5ORCID,Robertson Andrew8ORCID,Sharon Keren9ORCID,Ridley Evan1

Affiliation:

1. School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham , Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK

2. Institute for Gravitational Wave Astronomy, University of Birmingham , Birmingham B15 2TT, UK

3. Univ Lyon, Univ Lyon1, Ens de Lyon, CNRS, Centre de Recherche Astrophysique de Lyon UMR5574 , F-69230 Saint-Genis-Laval, France

4. Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy, Durham University , South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK

5. Institute for Computational Cosmology, Durham University , South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK

6. Astrophysics Research Centre, University of KwaZulu-Natal , Westville Campus, Durban 4041, South Africa

7. School of Mathematics, Statistics & Computer Science, University of KwaZulu-Natal , Westville Campus, Durban 4041, South Africa

8. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology , 4800 Oak Grove Dr, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA

9. Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan , 1085 S. University Ave, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA

Abstract

ABSTRACT We search for gravitational wave (GW) events from LIGO-Virgo’s third run that may have been affected by gravitational lensing. Gravitational lensing delays the arrival of GWs, and alters their amplitude – thus biasing the inferred progenitor masses. This would provide a physically well-understood interpretation of GW detections in the ‘mass gap’ between neutron stars and black holes, as gravitationally lensed binary neutron star (BNS) mergers. We selected three GW detections in LIGO-Virgo’s third run for which the probability of at least one of the constituent compact objects being in the mass gap was reported as high with low latency – i.e. candidate lensed BNS mergers. Our observations of powerful strong lensing clusters located adjacent to the peak of their sky localization error maps reached a sensitivity $\rm AB\simeq 25.5$ in the z′ band with the GMOS instruments on the Gemini telescopes, and detected no candidate lensed optical counterparts. We combine recent kilonova light-curve models with recent predictions of the lensed BNS population and the properties of the objects that we followed up to show that realistic optical counterparts were detectable in our observations. Further detailed analysis of two of the candidates suggests that they are a plausible pair of images of the same low-mass binary black hole merger, lensed by a local galaxy or small group of galaxies. This further underlines that access to accurate mass information with low latency would improve the efficiency of candidate lensed BNS selection.

Funder

STFC

Leverhulme Trust

ERC

Alan Turing Institute

Publisher

Oxford University Press (OUP)

Subject

Space and Planetary Science,Astronomy and Astrophysics

Cited by 3 articles. 订阅此论文施引文献 订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献

同舟云学术

1.学者识别学者识别

2.学术分析学术分析

3.人才评估人才评估

"同舟云学术"是以全球学者为主线,采集、加工和组织学术论文而形成的新型学术文献查询和分析系统,可以对全球学者进行文献检索和人才价值评估。用户可以通过关注某些学科领域的顶尖人物而持续追踪该领域的学科进展和研究前沿。经过近期的数据扩容,当前同舟云学术共收录了国内外主流学术期刊6万余种,收集的期刊论文及会议论文总量共计约1.5亿篇,并以每天添加12000余篇中外论文的速度递增。我们也可以为用户提供个性化、定制化的学者数据。欢迎来电咨询!咨询电话:010-8811{复制后删除}0370

www.globalauthorid.com

TOP

Copyright © 2019-2024 北京同舟云网络信息技术有限公司
京公网安备11010802033243号  京ICP备18003416号-3