The Gravity Collective: A Search for the Electromagnetic Counterpart to the Neutron Star-Black Hole Merger GW190814
Date Issued
2021
Author(s)
Kilpatrick, Charles D.
Coulter, David A.
Arcavi, Iair
Brink, Thomas G.
Dimitriadis, Georgios
Filippenko, Alexei, V
Foley, Ryan J.
Howell, D. Andrew
Jones, David O.
Kasen, Daniel
Makler, Martin
Piro, Anthony L.
Rojas-Bravo, Cesar
Sand, David J.
Swift, Jonathan J.
Tucker, Douglas
Zheng, WeiKang
Allam, Sahar S.
Annis, James T.
Antilen, Juanita
Bachmann, Tristan G.
Bloom, Joshua S.
Bom, Clecio R.
Bostroem, K. Azalee
Brout, Dillon
Burke, Jamison
Butler, Robert E.
Butner, Melissa
Campillay, Abdo
Clever, Karoli E.
Conselice, Christopher J.
Cooke, Jeff
Dage, Kristen C.
de Carvalho, Reinaldo R.
de Jaeger, Thomas
Desai, Shantanu
Garcia, Alyssa
Garcia-Bellido, Juan
Gill, Mandeep S. S.
Girish, Nachiket
Hallakoun, Na'ama
Herner, Kenneth
Hiramatsu, Daichi
Holz, Daniel E.
Huber, Grace
Kawash, Adam M.
McCully, Curtis
Medallon, Sophia A.
Metzger, Brian D.
Modak, Shaunak
Morgan, Robert
Munoz, Ricardo R.
Munoz-Elgueta, Nahir
Murakami, Yukei S.
Felipe Olivares, E.
Palmese, Antonella
Patra, Kishore C.
Pereira, Maria E. S.
Pessi, Thallis L.
Pineda-Garcia, J.
Quirola-Vasquez, Jonathan
Ramirez-Ruiz, Enrico
Rembold, Sandro Barboza
Rest, Armin
Rodriguez, Osmar
Santana-Silva, Luidhy
Sherman, Nora F.
Siebert, Matthew R.
Smith, Carli
Smith, J. Allyn
Soares-Santos, Marcelle
Stacey, Holland
Stahl, Benjamin E.
Strader, Jay
Strasburger, Erika
Sunseri, James
Tinyanont, Samaporn
Tucker, Brad E.
Ulloa, Natalie
Valenti, Stefano
Vasylyev, Sergiy S.
Wiesner, Matthew P.
Zhang, Keto D.
DOI
http://dx.doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac23c6
Abstract
We present optical follow-up imaging obtained with the Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope, Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network, Nickel Telescope, Swope Telescope, and Thacher Telescope of the LIGO/Virgo gravitational wave (GW) signal from the neutron star-black hole (NSBH) merger GW190814. We searched the GW190814 localization region (19 deg(2) for the 90th percentile best localization), covering a total of 51 deg(2) and 94.6% of the two-dimensional localization region. Analyzing the properties of 189 transients that we consider as candidate counterparts to the NSBH merger, including their localizations, discovery times from merger, optical spectra, likely host galaxy redshifts, and photometric evolution, we conclude that none of these objects are likely to be associated with GW190814. Based on this finding, we consider the likely optical properties of an electromagnetic counterpart to GW190814, including possible kilonovae and short gamma-ray burst afterglows. Using the joint limits from our follow-up imaging, we conclude that a counterpart with an r-band decline rate of 0.68 mag day(-1), similar to the kilonova AT 2017gfo, could peak at an absolute magnitude of at most -17.8 mag (50% confidence). Our data are not constraining for red kilonovae and rule out blue kilonovae with M > 0.5 M (circle dot) (30% confidence). We strongly rule out all known types of short gamma-ray burst afterglows with viewing angles <17 degrees assuming an initial jet opening angle of similar to 5.degrees 2 and explosion energies and circumburst densities similar to afterglows explored in the literature. Finally, we explore the possibility that GW190814 merged in the disk of an active galactic nucleus, of which we find four in the localization region, but we do not find any candidate counterparts among these sources.


