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GW170817: observation of gravitational waves from a binary neutron star inspiral

B. P. Abbott, +1134 more
- 16 Oct 2017 - 
- Vol. 119, Iss: 16, pp 161101-161101
TLDR
The association of 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 between these mergers and short γ-ray bursts.
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 8.0×10^{4}  years. We infer the component masses of the binary to be between 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}^{+0.04}M_{⊙}. The source was localized within a sky region of 28  deg^{2} (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 between 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.

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The Zwicky Transient Facility: Science Objectives

Matthew J. Graham, +128 more
TL;DR: The Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) as mentioned in this paper is a new time-domain survey employing a dedicated camera on the Palomar 48-inch Schmidt telescope with a 47 deg^2 field of view and an 8 second readout time.
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Gravitational Waves Induced by Non-Gaussian Scalar Perturbations

TL;DR: In this article, the power spectrum of the curvature perturbation has a narrow peak at some small scale, with a local-type non-Gaussianity, and the density parameter per logarithmic frequency interval is calculated.
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Post-Newtonian Dynamics in Dense Star Clusters: Highly Eccentric, Highly Spinning, and Repeated Binary Black Hole Mergers

TL;DR: Modelling the relativistic accelerations and gravitational-wave emission in isolated binaries and during three- and four-body encounters finds that nearly half of all binary black hole mergers occur inside the cluster, with about 10% of those mergers entering the LIGO/Virgo band with eccentricities greater than 0.1.
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The progenitors of compact-object binaries: impact of metallicity, common envelope and natal kicks

TL;DR: In this paper, the progenitors of double compact object binaries with their population-synthesis code MOBSE are investigated, and the impact of progenitor's metallicity, of the common-envelope parameter $\alpha{}$ and of the natal kicks on the properties of DNSs, BHNSs and BHBs are investigated.
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Planck 2015 results - XIII. Cosmological parameters

Peter A. R. Ade, +337 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a cosmological analysis based on full-mission Planck observations of temperature and polarization anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation.
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Planck 2015 results. XIII. Cosmological parameters

Peter A. R. Ade, +260 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present results based on full-mission Planck observations of temperature and polarization anisotropies of the CMB, which are consistent with the six-parameter inflationary LCDM cosmology.
Journal ArticleDOI

Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger

B. P. Abbott, +1011 more
TL;DR: This is the first direct detection of gravitational waves and the first observation of a binary black hole merger, and these observations demonstrate the existence of binary stellar-mass black hole systems.
Journal Article

The Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger

TL;DR: The first direct detection of gravitational waves and the first observation of a binary black hole merger were reported in this paper, with a false alarm rate estimated to be less than 1 event per 203,000 years, equivalent to a significance greater than 5.1σ.
Journal ArticleDOI

GW151226: observation of gravitational waves from a 22-solar-mass binary black hole coalescence

B. P. Abbott, +973 more
TL;DR: This second gravitational-wave observation provides improved constraints on stellar populations and on deviations from general relativity.
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