Gravity and Light: Combining Gravitational Wave and Electromagnetic Observations in the 2020s
Abstract
As of today, we have directly detected exactly one source in both gravitational waves (GWs) and electromagnetic (EM) radiation, the binary neutron star merger GW170817, its associated gamma-ray burst GRB170817A, and the subsequent kilonova SSS17a/AT 2017gfo. Within ten years, we will detect hundreds of events, including new classes of events such as neutron-star-black-hole mergers, core-collapse supernovae, and almost certainly something completely unexpected. As we build this sample, we will explore exotic astrophysical topics ranging from nucleosynthesis, stellar evolution, general relativity, high-energy astrophysics, nuclear matter, to cosmology. The discovery potential is extraordinary, and investments in this area will yield major scientific breakthroughs. Here we outline some of the most exciting scientific questions that can be answered by combining GW and EM observations.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1903.04553,
title = {Gravity and Light: Combining Gravitational Wave and Electromagnetic Observations in the 2020s},
author = {R. J. Foley and K. D. Alexander and I. Andreoni and I. Arcavi and K. Auchettl and J. Barnes and G. Baym and E. C. Bellm and A. M. Beloborodov and N. Blagorodnova and J. P. Blakeslee and P. R. Brady and M. Branchesi and J. S. Brown and N. Butler and M. Cantiello and R. Chornock and D. O. Cook and J. Cooke and D. L. Coppejans and A. Corsi and S. M. Couch and M. W. Coughlin and D. A. Coulter and P. S. Cowperthwaite and T. Dietrich and G. Dimitriadis and M. R. Drout and J. H. Elias and B. Farr and R. Fernandez and A. V. Filippenko and W. Fong and T. Fragos and D. A. Frail and W. L. Freedman and C. L. Fryer and V. Z. Golkhou and D. Hiramatsu and J. Hjorth and A. Horesh and G. Hosseinzadeh and K. Hotokezaka and D. A. Howell and T. Hung and D. O. Jones and V. Kalogera and D. Kasen and W. E. Kerzendorf and C. D. Kilpatrick and R. P. Kirshner and K. Krisciunas and J. M. Lattimer and D. Lazzati and A. J. Levan and A. I. MacFadyen and K. Maeda and I. Mandel and K. S. Mandel and B. Margalit and R. Margutti and J. McIver and B. D. Metzger and K. Mooley and T. Moriya and A. Murguia-Berthier and G. Narayan and M. Nicholl and S. Nissanke and K. Nomoto and J. M. O'Meara and R. O'Shaughnessy and E. O'Connor and A. Palmese and Y. -C. Pan and C. Pankow and K. Paterson and D. A. Perley and R. Perna and A. L. Piro and T. A. Pritchard and E. Quataert and D. Radice and E. Ramirez-Ruiz and S. Reddy and A. Rest and A. G. Riess and C. L. Rodriguez and C. Rojas-Bravo and E. M. Rossi and S. Rosswog and M. Ruiz and S. L. Shapiro and D. H. Shoemaker and M. R. Siebert and D. M. Siegel and K. Siellez and N. Smith and M. Soares-Santos and N. B. Suntzeff and R. Surman and M. Tanaka and N. R. Tanvir and G. Terreran and S. Valenti and V. A. Villar and L. Wang and S. A. Webb and J. C. Wheeler and P. K. G. Williams and S. Woosley and M. Zaldarriaga and M. Zevin},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1903.04553},
year = {2019}
}
Comments
submitted to Astro2020