IMPLICATIONS FOR THE ORIGIN OF GRB 051103 FROM LIGO OBSERVATIONS

We present the results of a LIGO search for gravitational waves (GWs) associated with GRB 051103, a short-duration hard-spectrum gamma-ray burst (GRB) whose electromagnetically determined sky position is coincident with the spiral galaxy M81, which is 3.6 Mpc from Earth. Possible progenitors for sho...

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Published in:The Astrophysical journal 2012-08, Vol.755 (1), p.2
Main Authors: Abbott, B. P., Anderson, S. B., Anderson, W. G., Arain, M. A., Aulbert, C., Ballmer, S., Barnum, S., Bauchrowitz, J., Biswas, R., Blackburn, L., Bose, S., Braginsky, V. B., Brown, D. A., Brummitt, A., Camp, J. B., Cannizzo, J., Clark, D., Costa, C. A., Coward, D. M., Coyne, D. C., Cunningham, L., Dannenberg, R., Davies, G., Daw, E. J., Dayanga, T., Dergachev, V., DeRosa, R., Dumas, J.-C., Effler, A., Ehrens, P., Foley, S., Fotopoulos, N., Fritschel, P., Ghosh, S., Giampanis, S., Goggin, L. M., Grant, A., Gras, S., Greenhalgh, R. J. S., Grote, H., Harry, G. M., Hodge, K. A., Hough, J., Ju, L., Kalogera, V., Katzman, W., Klimenko, S., Kopparapu, R., Lantz, B., Lu, P., Luan, J., Lück, H., MacInnis, M., Márka, Z., Maros, E., Mavalvala, N., McCarthy, R., McClelland, D. E., McGuire, S. C., Mehmet, M., Melissinos, A. C., Miyakawa, O., Moesta, P., Mossavi, K., Mow-Lowry, C. M., Mueller, G., Nelson, J., Nolting, D., Nuttall, L., O'Dell, J., Ottaway, D. J., Page, A., Pickenpack, M., Rankins, B., Redwine, K., Reitze, D. H., Robinson, C., Robinson, E. L., Röver, C., Sancho de la Jordana, L., Sathyaprakash, B. S., Schlamminger, S., Shawhan, P., Sibley, A., Skelton, G., Smith, N. D., Soto, J., Speirits, F. C., Steinlechner, J., Strigin, S., Szokoly, G. P., Urbanek, K., Vass, S., Vorvick, C., Wen, S., Wessels, P., West, M., Whiting, B. F., Willke, B., Zanolin, M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
ASTRONOMY
ASTROPHYSICS
ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
BLACK HOLES
COSMIC GAMMA BURSTS
DISTANCE
EMISSION
EMISSION SPECTRA
GALAXIES
GAMMA SPECTRA
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
GRAVITATIONAL WAVES
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
JETS
NEUTRON STARS
Physics
Sciences of the Universe
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Summary:We present the results of a LIGO search for gravitational waves (GWs) associated with GRB 051103, a short-duration hard-spectrum gamma-ray burst (GRB) whose electromagnetically determined sky position is coincident with the spiral galaxy M81, which is 3.6 Mpc from Earth. Possible progenitors for short-hard GRBs include compact object mergers and soft gamma repeater (SGR) giant flares. A merger progenitor would produce a characteristic GW signal that should be detectable at the distance of M81, while GW emission from an SGR is not expected to be detectable at that distance. We found no evidence of a GW signal associated with GRB 051103. Assuming weakly beamed gamma-ray emission with a jet semi-angle of 30 deg we exclude a binary neutron star merger in M81 as the progenitor with a confidence of 98%. Neutron star-black hole mergers are excluded with > 99% confidence. If the event occurred in M81 our findings support the the hypothesis that GRB 051103 was due to an SGR giant flare, making it the most distant extragalactic magnetar observed to date.
ISSN:0004-637X
1538-4357
DOI:10.1088/0004-637X/755/1/2