GW170817: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Neutron Star Inspiral
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-16-2017
Journal / Book Title
Physical Review Letters
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 betweenn 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 2.74-0.01+0.04M. The source was localized within a sky region of 28 deg2 (90% probability) and had a luminosity distance of 40-14+8 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 betweenn 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.
DOI
10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.161101
MSU Digital Commons Citation
The LIGO Scientific Collaboration; The Virgo Collaboration; Favata, Marc; Ghosh, Shaon; and Martin, Rodica, "GW170817: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Neutron Star Inspiral" (2017). Department of Physics and Astronomy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works. 76.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/physics-astron-facpubs/76
Published Citation
Abbott, B. P., Abbott, R., Abbott, T. D., Acernese, F., Ackley, K., Adams, C., ... & Cahillane, C. (2017). GW170817: observation of gravitational waves from a binary neutron star inspiral. Physical review letters, 119(16), 161101.
Comments
This article is a collaboration between the LIGO Scientific Collaboration and the Virgo Collaboration. Additional authors may be found on the publication.
This is an Open Access article under a Creative Commons Attribution International License.