Prospects for Observing and Localizing Gravitational-Wave Transients with Advanced LIGO, Advanced Virgo and KAGRA

Authors

B. P. Abbott, California Institute of Technology
R. Abbott, Louisiana State University
T. D. Abbott, American University Washington DC
M. R. Abernathy, University of Salerno
F. Acernese, Complesso Universitario di Monte sant'Angelo
K. Ackley, University of Florida
C. Adams, Universite de Savoie
Marc Favata, Montclair State UniversityFollow
Shaon Ghosh, Montclair State UniversityFollow
Rodica Martin, Montclair State UniversityFollow

Document Type

Review Article

Publication Date

12-1-2018

Journal / Book Title

Living Reviews in Relativity

Abstract

We present possible observing scenarios for the Advanced LIGO, Advanced Virgo and KAGRA gravitational-wave detectors over the next decade, with the intention of providing information to the astronomy community to facilitate planning for multi-messenger astronomy with gravitational waves. We estimate the sensitivity of the network to transient gravitational-wave signals, and study the capability of the network to determine the sky location of the source. We report our findings for gravitational-wave transients, with particular focus on gravitational-wave signals from the inspiral of binary neutron star systems, which are the most promising targets for multi-messenger astronomy. The ability to localize the sources of the detected signals depends on the geographical distribution of the detectors and their relative sensitivity, and 90 % credible regions can be as large as thousands of square degrees when only two sensitive detectors are operational. Determining the sky position of a significant fraction of detected signals to areas of 5–20deg2 requires at least three detectors of sensitivity within a factor of ∼ 2 of each other and with a broad frequency bandwidth. When all detectors, including KAGRA and the third LIGO detector in India, reach design sensitivity, a significant fraction of gravitational-wave signals will be localized to a few square degrees by gravitational-wave observations alone.

DOI

10.1007/s41114-018-0012-9

MSU Digital Commons Citation

Abbott, B. P.; Abbott, R.; Abbott, T. D.; Abernathy, M. R.; Acernese, F.; Ackley, K.; Adams, C.; Favata, Marc; Ghosh, Shaon; and Martin, Rodica, "Prospects for Observing and Localizing Gravitational-Wave Transients with Advanced LIGO, Advanced Virgo and KAGRA" (2018). Department of Physics and Astronomy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works. 102.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/physics-astron-facpubs/102

Published Citation

Kagra Collaboration, LIGO Scientific Collaboration, & Virgo Collaboration. (2018). Prospects for observing and localizing gravitational-wave transients with advanced LIGO, advanced Virgo and KAGRA. Living Reviews in Relativity, 21(1), 3.