GW170817: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Neutron Star Inspiral.

Journal: Physical Review Letters
Published:
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.

Authors
B Abbott, R Abbott, T Abbott, F Acernese, K Ackley, C Adams, T Adams, P Addesso, R Adhikari, V Adya, C Affeldt, M Afrough, B Agarwal, M Agathos, K Agatsuma, N Aggarwal, O Aguiar, L Aiello, A Ain, P Ajith, B Allen, G Allen, A Allocca, P Altin, A Amato, A Ananyeva, S Anderson, W Anderson, S Angelova, S Antier, S Appert, K Arai, M Araya, J Areeda, N Arnaud, K Arun, S Ascenzi, G Ashton, M Ast, S Aston, P Astone, D Atallah, P Aufmuth, C Aulbert, K Aultoneal, C Austin, A Avila Alvarez, S Babak, P Bacon, M Bader, S Bae, M Bailes, P Baker, F Baldaccini, G Ballardin, S Ballmer, S Banagiri, J Barayoga, S Barclay, B Barish, D Barker, K Barkett, F Barone, B Barr, L Barsotti, M Barsuglia, D Barta, S Barthelmy, J Bartlett, I Bartos, R Bassiri, A Basti, J Batch, M Bawaj, J Bayley, M Bazzan, B Bécsy, C Beer, M Bejger, I Belahcene, A Bell, B Berger, G Bergmann, S Bernuzzi, J Bero, C P Berry, D Bersanetti, A Bertolini, J Betzwieser, S Bhagwat, R Bhandare, I Bilenko, G Billingsley, C Billman, J Birch, R Birney, O Birnholtz, S Biscans, S Biscoveanu, A Bisht, M Bitossi, C Biwer, M Bizouard, J Blackburn, J Blackman, C Blair, D Blair, R Blair, S Bloemen, O Bock, N Bode, M Boer, G Bogaert, A Bohe, F Bondu, E Bonilla, R Bonnand, B Boom, R Bork, V Boschi, S Bose, K Bossie, Y Bouffanais, A Bozzi, C Bradaschia, P Brady, M Branchesi, J Brau, T Briant, A Brillet, M Brinkmann, V Brisson, P Brockill, J Broida, A Brooks, D Brown, D Brown, S Brunett, C Buchanan, A Buikema, T Bulik, H Bulten, A Buonanno, D Buskulic, C Buy, R Byer, M Cabero, L Cadonati, G Cagnoli, C Cahillane, J Calderón Bustillo, T Callister, E Calloni, J Camp, M Canepa, P Canizares, K Cannon, H Cao, J Cao, C Capano, E Capocasa, F Carbognani, S Caride, M Carney, G Carullo, J Casanueva Diaz, C Casentini, S Caudill, M Cavaglià, F Cavalier, R Cavalieri, G Cella, C Cepeda, P Cerdá Durán, G Cerretani, E Cesarini, S Chamberlin, M Chan, S Chao, P Charlton, E Chase, E Chassande Mottin, D Chatterjee, K Chatziioannou, B Cheeseboro, H Chen, X 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