Illuminating gravitational waves: A concordant picture of photons from a neutron star merger

M M Kasliwal; E Nakar; L P Singer; D L Kaplan; D O Cook; A Van Sistine; R M Lau; C Fremling; O Gottlieb; J E Jencson; S M Adams; U Feindt; K Hotokezaka; S Ghosh; D A Perley; P-C Yu; T Piran; J R Allison; G C Anupama; A Balasubramanian; K W Bannister; J Bally; J Barnes; S Barway; E Bellm; V Bhalerao; D Bhattacharya; N Blagorodnova; J S Bloom; P R Brady; C Cannella; D Chatterjee; S B Cenko; B E Cobb; C Copperwheat; A Corsi; K De; D Dobie; S W K Emery; P A Evans; O D Fox; D A Frail; C Frohmaier; A Goobar; G Hallinan; F Harrison; G Helou; T Hinderer; A Y Q Ho; A Horesh; W-H Ip; R Itoh; D Kasen; H Kim; N P M Kuin; T Kupfer; C Lynch; K Madsen; P A Mazzali; A A Miller; K Mooley; T Murphy; C-C Ngeow; D Nichols; S Nissanke; P Nugent; E O Ofek; H Qi; R M Quimby; S Rosswog; F Rusu; E M Sadler; P Schmidt; J Sollerman; I Steele; A R Williamson; Y Xu; L Yan; Y Yatsu; C Zhang; W Zhao

doi:10.1126/science.aap9455

Illuminating gravitational waves: A concordant picture of photons from a neutron star merger

Science. 2017 Dec 22;358(6370):1559-1565. doi: 10.1126/science.aap9455. Epub 2017 Oct 16.

Authors

M M Kasliwal¹, E Nakar², L P Singer^{3

4}, D L Kaplan⁵, D O Cook⁶, A Van Sistine⁵, R M Lau⁶, C Fremling⁶, O Gottlieb², J E Jencson⁶, S M Adams⁶, U Feindt⁷, K Hotokezaka^{8

9}, S Ghosh⁵, D A Perley¹⁰, P-C Yu¹¹, T Piran¹², J R Allison^{13

14}, G C Anupama¹⁵, A Balasubramanian¹⁶, K W Bannister¹⁷, J Bally¹⁸, J Barnes¹⁹, S Barway²⁰, E Bellm²¹, V Bhalerao²², D Bhattacharya²³, N Blagorodnova⁶, J S Bloom^{24

25}, P R Brady⁵, C Cannella⁶, D Chatterjee⁵, S B Cenko^{3

4}, B E Cobb²⁶, C Copperwheat¹⁰, A Corsi²⁷, K De⁶, D Dobie^{13

28

17}, S W K Emery²⁹, P A Evans³⁰, O D Fox³¹, D A Frail³², C Frohmaier^{33

34}, A Goobar⁷, G Hallinan⁶, F Harrison⁶, G Helou³⁵, T Hinderer³⁶, A Y Q Ho⁶, A Horesh¹², W-H Ip⁹, R Itoh³⁷, D Kasen^{24

38}, H Kim³⁹, N P M Kuin²⁹, T Kupfer⁶, C Lynch^{13

28}, K Madsen⁶, P A Mazzali^{10

40}, A A Miller^{41

42}, K Mooley⁴³, T Murphy^{13

28}, C-C Ngeow¹¹, D Nichols³⁶, S Nissanke³⁶, P Nugent^{24

25}, E O Ofek⁴⁴, H Qi⁵, R M Quimby^{45

46}, S Rosswog⁴⁷, F Rusu⁴⁸, E M Sadler^{13

28}, P Schmidt³⁶, J Sollerman⁴⁷, I Steele¹⁰, A R Williamson³⁶, Y Xu⁶, L Yan^{6

35}, Y Yatsu³⁷, C Zhang⁵, W Zhao⁴⁸

Affiliations

¹ Division of Physics, Math and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, 1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA. mansi@astro.caltech.edu.
² The Raymond and Beverly Sackler School of Physics and Astronomy, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel.
³ Astroparticle Physics Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Mail Code 661, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA.
⁴ Joint Space-Science Institute, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
⁵ Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI 53201, USA.
⁶ Division of Physics, Math and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, 1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
⁷ The Oskar Klein Centre, Department of Physics, Stockholm University, AlbaNova, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden.
⁸ Center for Computational Astrophysics, Simons Foundation, Flatiron Institute, 162 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA.
⁹ Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Peyton Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.
¹⁰ Astrophysics Research Institute, Liverpool John Moores University, IC2, Liverpool Science Park, 146 Browlow Hill, Liverpool L3 5RF, UK.
¹¹ Graduate Institute of Astronomy, National Central University, No. 300, Zhongda Road, Zhongli District, Taoyuan City 32001, Taiwan.
¹² Racah Institute of Physics, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel.
¹³ Sydney Institute for Astronomy, School of Physics A28, The University of Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia.
¹⁴ Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions, Australia.
¹⁵ Indian Institute of Astrophysics, II Block Koramangala, Bangalore 560034, India.
¹⁶ Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Dr. Homi Bhabha Road, Pashan, Pune 411008, India.
¹⁷ Australia Telescope National Facility, Astronomy and Space Science, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Post Office Box 76, Epping, New South Wales 1710, Australia.
¹⁸ Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80305, USA.
¹⁹ Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA.
²⁰ South African Astronomical Observatory, Post Office Box 9, Observatory, Cape Town 7935, South Africa.
²¹ Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
²² Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai 400076, India.
²³ Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Post Office Bag 4, Ganeshkhind, Pune 411007, India.
²⁴ Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3411, USA.
²⁵ Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, MS 50B-4206, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
²⁶ Department of Physics, George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA.
²⁷ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Texas Tech University, Box 41051, Lubbock, TX 79409-1051, USA.
²⁸ Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics, Australia.
²⁹ University College London, Mullard Space Science Laboratory, Holmbury St. Mary, Dorking RH5 6NT, UK.
³⁰ X-ray and Observational Astronomy Research Group, Leicester Institute for Space and Earth Observation, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK.
³¹ Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA.
³² National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Socorro, NM 87825, USA.
³³ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Southampton, Southampton, Hampshire SO17 1BJ, UK.
³⁴ Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, Dennis Sciama Building, University of Portsmouth, Burnaby Road, Portsmouth PO1 3FX, UK.
³⁵ Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
³⁶ Institute of Mathematics, Astrophysics and Particle Physics, Radboud University, Heyendaalseweg 135, 6525 AJ Nijmegen, Netherlands.
³⁷ Department of Physics, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2-12-1 Ookayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8551, Japan.
³⁸ Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
³⁹ Gemini Observatory, Casilla 603, La Serena, Chile.
⁴⁰ Max-Planck Institute for Astrophysics, Garching, Germany.
⁴¹ Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA.
⁴² The Adler Planetarium, Chicago, IL 60605, USA.
⁴³ Astrophysics, Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3RH, UK.
⁴⁴ Department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel.
⁴⁵ Department of Astronomy, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182, USA.
⁴⁶ Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (WPI), The University of Tokyo Institutes for Advanced Study, The University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8583, Japan.
⁴⁷ The Oskar Klein Centre, Department of Astronomy, Stockholm University, AlbaNova, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden.
⁴⁸ School of Engineering (EECS), University of California, Merced, CA 95343, USA.

PMID: 29038373
DOI: 10.1126/science.aap9455

Abstract

Merging neutron stars offer an excellent laboratory for simultaneously studying strong-field gravity and matter in extreme environments. We establish the physical association of an electromagnetic counterpart (EM170817) with gravitational waves (GW170817) detected from merging neutron stars. By synthesizing a panchromatic data set, we demonstrate that merging neutron stars are a long-sought production site forging heavy elements by r-process nucleosynthesis. The weak gamma rays seen in EM170817 are dissimilar to classical short gamma-ray bursts with ultrarelativistic jets. Instead, we suggest that breakout of a wide-angle, mildly relativistic cocoon engulfing the jet explains the low-luminosity gamma rays, the high-luminosity ultraviolet-optical-infrared, and the delayed radio and x-ray emission. We posit that all neutron star mergers may lead to a wide-angle cocoon breakout, sometimes accompanied by a successful jet and sometimes by a choked jet.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't