Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-20-2020
Department
Department of Physics
Abstract
A search for time-directional coincidences of ultra-high-energy (UHE) photons above 10 EeV with gravitational wave (GW) events from the LIGO/Virgo runs O1 to O3 is conducted with the Pierre Auger Observatory. Due to the distinctive properties of photon interactions and to the background expected from hadronic showers, a subset of the most interesting GW events is selected based on their localization quality and distance. Time periods of 1000 s around and 1 day after the GW events are analyzed. No coincidences are observed. Upper limits on the UHE photon fluence from a GW event are derived that are typically at ∼7 MeV cm−2 (time period 1000 s) and ∼35 MeV cm−2 (time period 1 day). Due to the proximity of the binary neutron star merger GW170817, the energy of the source transferred into UHE photons above 40 EeV is constrained to be less than 20% of its total GW energy. These are the first limits on UHE photons from GW sources.
Publication Title
The Astrophysical Journal
Recommended Citation
Halim, A.,
Abreu, P.,
Aglietta, M.,
Allekotte, I.,
Almeida Cheminant, K.,
Almela, A.,
Fick, B.,
Norwood, I.,
Puyleart, A.,
&
et al.
(2020).
Search for Ultra-high-energy Photons from Gravitational Wave Sources with the Pierre Auger Observatory.
The Astrophysical Journal,
952(91).
http://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/acc862
Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/michigantech-p2/1751
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Version
Publisher's PDF
Publisher's Statement
© 2023. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society. Publisher’s version of record: https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/acc862