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A DECAM SEARCH for AN OPTICAL COUNTERPART to the LIGO GRAVITATIONAL-WAVE EVENT GW151226

Publication ,  Journal Article
Cowperthwaite, PS; Berger, E; Soares-Santos, M; Annis, J; Brout, D; Brown, DA; Buckley-Geer, E; Cenko, SB; Chen, HY; Chornock, R; Diehl, HT ...
Published in: Astrophysical Journal Letters
August 1, 2016

We report the results of a Dark Energy Camera optical follow-up of the gravitational-wave (GW) event GW151226, discovered by the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory detectors. Our observations cover 28.8 deg2 of the localization region in the i and z bands (containing 3% of the BAYESTAR localization probability), starting 10 hr after the event was announced and spanning four epochs at 2-24 days after the GW detection. We achieve point-source limiting magnitudes of and , with a scatter of 0.4 mag, in our difference images. Given the two-day delay, we search this area for a rapidly declining optical counterpart with significance steady decline between the first and final observations. We recover four sources that pass our selection criteria, of which three are cataloged active galactic nuclei. The fourth source is offset by 5.8 arcsec from the center of a galaxy at a distance of 187 Mpc, exhibits a rapid decline by 0.5 mag over 4 days, and has a red color of mag. These properties could satisfy a set of cuts designed to identify kilonovae. However, this source was detected several times, starting 94 days prior to GW151226, in the Pan-STARRS Survey for Transients (dubbed as PS15cdi) and is therefore unrelated to the GW event. Given its long-term behavior, PS15cdi is likely a Type IIP supernova that transitioned out of its plateau phase during our observations, mimicking a kilonova-like behavior. We comment on the implications of this detection for contamination in future optical follow-up observations.

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Published In

Astrophysical Journal Letters

DOI

EISSN

2041-8213

ISSN

2041-8205

Publication Date

August 1, 2016

Volume

826

Issue

2

Related Subject Headings

  • Astronomy & Astrophysics
  • 5109 Space sciences
  • 5101 Astronomical sciences
  • 0201 Astronomical and Space Sciences
 

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Cowperthwaite, P. S., Berger, E., Soares-Santos, M., Annis, J., Brout, D., Brown, D. A., … Weller, J. (2016). A DECAM SEARCH for AN OPTICAL COUNTERPART to the LIGO GRAVITATIONAL-WAVE EVENT GW151226. Astrophysical Journal Letters, 826(2). https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8205/826/2/L29
Cowperthwaite, P. S., E. Berger, M. Soares-Santos, J. Annis, D. Brout, D. A. Brown, E. Buckley-Geer, et al. “A DECAM SEARCH for AN OPTICAL COUNTERPART to the LIGO GRAVITATIONAL-WAVE EVENT GW151226.” Astrophysical Journal Letters 826, no. 2 (August 1, 2016). https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8205/826/2/L29.
Cowperthwaite PS, Berger E, Soares-Santos M, Annis J, Brout D, Brown DA, et al. A DECAM SEARCH for AN OPTICAL COUNTERPART to the LIGO GRAVITATIONAL-WAVE EVENT GW151226. Astrophysical Journal Letters. 2016 Aug 1;826(2).
Cowperthwaite, P. S., et al. “A DECAM SEARCH for AN OPTICAL COUNTERPART to the LIGO GRAVITATIONAL-WAVE EVENT GW151226.” Astrophysical Journal Letters, vol. 826, no. 2, Aug. 2016. Scopus, doi:10.3847/2041-8205/826/2/L29.
Cowperthwaite PS, Berger E, Soares-Santos M, Annis J, Brout D, Brown DA, Buckley-Geer E, Cenko SB, Chen HY, Chornock R, Diehl HT, Doctor Z, Drlica-Wagner A, Drout MR, Farr B, Finley DA, Foley RJ, Fong W, Fox DB, Frieman J, Garcia-Bellido J, Gill MSS, Gruendl RA, Herner K, Holz DE, Kasen D, Kessler R, Lin H, Margutti R, Marriner J, Matheson T, Metzger BD, Neilsen EH, Quataert E, Rest A, Sako M, Scolnic D, Smith N, Sobreira F, Strampelli GM, Villar VA, Walker AR, Wester W, Williams PKG, Yanny B, Abbott TMC, Abdalla FB, Allam S, Armstrong R, Bechtol K, Benoit-Lévy A, Bertin E, Brooks D, Burke DL, Rosell AC, Kind MC, Carretero J, Castander FJ, Cunha CE, D’Andrea CB, Costa LND, Desai S, Dietrich JP, Evrard AE, Neto AF, Fosalba P, Gerdes DW, Giannantonio T, Goldstein DA, Gruen D, Gutierrez G, Honscheid K, James DJ, Johnson MWG, Johnson MD, Krause E, Kuehn K, Kuropatkin N, Lima M, Maia MAG, Marshall JL, Menanteau F, Miquel R, Mohr JJ, Nichol RC, Nord B, Ogando R, Plazas AA, Reil K, Romer AK, Sanchez E, Scarpine V, Sevilla-Noarbe I, Smith RC, Suchyta E, Tarle G, Thomas D, Thomas RC, Tucker DL, Weller J. A DECAM SEARCH for AN OPTICAL COUNTERPART to the LIGO GRAVITATIONAL-WAVE EVENT GW151226. Astrophysical Journal Letters. 2016 Aug 1;826(2).
Journal cover image

Published In

Astrophysical Journal Letters

DOI

EISSN

2041-8213

ISSN

2041-8205

Publication Date

August 1, 2016

Volume

826

Issue

2

Related Subject Headings

  • Astronomy & Astrophysics
  • 5109 Space sciences
  • 5101 Astronomical sciences
  • 0201 Astronomical and Space Sciences