Quantifying the coincidence between gravitational waves and fast radio bursts from neutron star - black hole mergers

Fuente: arXiv
Salvato in:
Dettagli Bibliografici
Autori principali: Clarke, Teagan A., Sarin, Nikhil, Howell, Eric J., Lasky, Paul D., Thrane, Eric
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2024
Soggetti:
Accesso online:
Tags: Aggiungi Tag
Nessun Tag, puoi essere il primo ad aggiungerne!!
_version_ 1866916686977826816
author Clarke, Teagan A.
Sarin, Nikhil
Howell, Eric J.
Lasky, Paul D.
Thrane, Eric
author_facet Clarke, Teagan A.
Sarin, Nikhil
Howell, Eric J.
Lasky, Paul D.
Thrane, Eric
contents Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are mysterious astrophysical transients whose origin and mechanism remain unclear. Compact object mergers may be a promising channel to produce some FRBs. Neutron star-black hole (NSBH) mergers could produce FRBs through mechanisms involving neutron star tidal disruption or magnetospheric disturbances. This could present an opportunity for multi-messenger gravitational-wave observations, providing new insight into the nature of FRBs and nuclear matter. However, some of the gravitational-wave signals may be marginal detections with signal-to-noise ratios < 8 or have large sky location and distance uncertainties, making it less straightforward to confidently associate an FRB with the gravitational-wave signal. One must therefore take care to avoid a false positive association. We demonstrate how to do this with simulated data. We calculate the posterior odds -- a measurement of our relative belief for a common versus unrelated origin of a coincident NSBH and FRB. We find that a coincident FRB+NSBH from a common source can yield a statistically significant posterior odds in a network with at least two observatories, but only if we require a coincidence in time and and sky location, rather than time alone. However, we find that for our model, we require a network signal-to-noise ratio greater than 10 to be confident in the common-source detection, when using a threshold of ln odds > 8. We suggest that a coincident NSBH+FRB detection could help distinguish between FRB engines by discriminating between disrupting and non-disrupting models.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2408_02534
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Quantifying the coincidence between gravitational waves and fast radio bursts from neutron star - black hole mergers
Clarke, Teagan A.
Sarin, Nikhil
Howell, Eric J.
Lasky, Paul D.
Thrane, Eric
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are mysterious astrophysical transients whose origin and mechanism remain unclear. Compact object mergers may be a promising channel to produce some FRBs. Neutron star-black hole (NSBH) mergers could produce FRBs through mechanisms involving neutron star tidal disruption or magnetospheric disturbances. This could present an opportunity for multi-messenger gravitational-wave observations, providing new insight into the nature of FRBs and nuclear matter. However, some of the gravitational-wave signals may be marginal detections with signal-to-noise ratios < 8 or have large sky location and distance uncertainties, making it less straightforward to confidently associate an FRB with the gravitational-wave signal. One must therefore take care to avoid a false positive association. We demonstrate how to do this with simulated data. We calculate the posterior odds -- a measurement of our relative belief for a common versus unrelated origin of a coincident NSBH and FRB. We find that a coincident FRB+NSBH from a common source can yield a statistically significant posterior odds in a network with at least two observatories, but only if we require a coincidence in time and and sky location, rather than time alone. However, we find that for our model, we require a network signal-to-noise ratio greater than 10 to be confident in the common-source detection, when using a threshold of ln odds > 8. We suggest that a coincident NSBH+FRB detection could help distinguish between FRB engines by discriminating between disrupting and non-disrupting models.
title Quantifying the coincidence between gravitational waves and fast radio bursts from neutron star - black hole mergers
topic High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.02534