Kilonova Luminosity Function Constraints based on Zwicky Transient Facility Searches for 13 Neutron Star Mergers
Abstract
We present a systematic search for optical counterparts to 13 gravitational wave (GW) triggers involving at least one neutron star during LIGO/Virgo's third observing run. We searched binary neutron star (BNS) and neutron star black hole (NSBH) merger localizations with the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) and undertook follow-up with the Global Relay of Observatories Watching Transients Happen (GROWTH) collaboration. The GW triggers had a median localization of 4480 deg^2, median distance of 267 Mpc and false alarm rates ranging from 1.5 to 1e-25 per yr. The ZTF coverage had a median enclosed probability of 39%, median depth of 20.8mag, and median response time of 1.5 hr. The O3 follow-up by the GROWTH team comprised 340 UVOIR photometric points, 64 OIR spectra, and 3 radio. We find no promising kilonova (radioactivity-powered counterpart) and we convert the upper limits to constrain the underlying kilonova luminosity function. Assuming that all kilonovae are at least as luminous as GW170817 at discovery (-16.1mag), we calculate our joint probability of detecting zero kilonovae is only 4.2%. If we assume that all kilonovae are brighter than -16.6mag (extrapolated peak magnitude of GW170817) and fade at 1 mag/day (similar to GW170817), the joint probability of zero detections is 7%. If we separate the NSBH and BNS populations, the joint probability of zero detections, assuming all kilonovae are brighter than -16.6mag, is 9.7% for NSBH and 7.9% for BNS mergers. Moreover, <57% (<89%) of putative kilonovae could be brighter than -16.6mag assuming flat (fading) evolution, at 90% confidence. If we further account for the online terrestrial probability for each GW trigger, we find that <68% of putative kilonovae could be brighter than -16.6mag. Comparing to model grids, we find that some kilonovae must have Mej < 0.03 Msun or Xlan>1e-4 or phi>30deg to be consistent with our limits. (Abridged)
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Cite
@article{arxiv.2006.11306,
title = {Kilonova Luminosity Function Constraints based on Zwicky Transient Facility Searches for 13 Neutron Star Mergers},
author = {Mansi M. Kasliwal and Shreya Anand and Tomas Ahumada and Robert Stein and Ana Sagues Carracedo and Igor Andreoni and Michael W. Coughlin and Leo P. Singer and Erik C. Kool and Kishalay De and Harsh Kumar and Mouza AlMualla and Yuhan Yao and Mattia Bulla and Dougal Dobie and Simeon Reusch and Daniel A. Perley and S. Bradley Cenko and Varun Bhalerao and David L. Kaplan and Jesper Sollerman and Ariel Goobar and Christopher M. Copperwheat and Eric C. Bellm and G. C. Anupama and Alessandra Corsi and Samaya Nissanke and Ivan Agudo and Ashot Bagdasaryan and Sudhanshu Barway and Justin Belicki and Joshua S. Bloom and Bryce Bolin and David A. H. Buckley and Kevin B. Burdge and Rick Burruss and Maria D. Caballero-Garcıa and Chris Cannella and Alberto J. Castro-Tirado and David O. Cook and Jeff Cooke and Virginia Cunningham and Aishwarya Dahiwale and Kunal Deshmukh and Simone Dichiara and Dmitry A. Duev and Anirban Dutta and Michael Feeney and Anna Franckowiak and Sara Frederick and Christoffer Fremling and Avishay Gal-Yam and Pradip Gatkine and Shaon Ghosh and Daniel A. Goldstein and V. Zach Golkhou and Matthew J. Graham and Melissa L. Graham and Matthew J. Hankins and George Helou and Youdong Hu and Wing-Huen Ip and Amruta Jaodand and Viraj Karambelkar and Albert K. H. Kong and Marek Kowalski and Maitreya Khandagale and S. R. Kulkarni and Brajesh Kumar and Russ R. Laher and K. L. Li and Ashish Mahabal and Frank J. Masci and Adam A. Miller and Moses Mogotsi and Siddharth Mohite and Kunal Mooley and Przemek Mroz and Jeffrey A. Newman and Chow-Choong Ngeow and Samantha R. Oates and Atharva Sunil Patil and Shashi B. Pandey and M. Pavana and Elena Pian and Reed Riddle and Ruben Sanchez-Ramırez and Yashvi Sharma and Avinash Singh and Roger Smith and Maayane T. Soumagnac and Kirsty Taggart and Hanjie Tan and Anastasios Tzanidakis and Eleonora Troja and Azamat F. Valeev and Richard Walters and Gaurav Waratkar and Sara Webb and Po-Chieh Yu and Bin-Bin Zhang and Rongpu Zhou and Jeffry Zolkower},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2006.11306},
year = {2021}
}
Comments
Submitted to ApJ