SOAR/Goodman Spectroscopic Assessment of Candidate Counterparts of the LIGO/Virgo Event GW190814* Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Abstract On 2019 August 14 at 21:10:39 UTC, the LIGO/Virgo Collaboration (LVC) detected a possible neutron starblack hole merger (NSBH), the first ever identified. An extensive search for an optical counterpart of this event, designated GW190814, was undertaken using the Dark Energy Camera on the 4 m Victor M. Blanco Telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory. Target of Opportunity interrupts were issued on eight separate nights to observe 11 candidates using the 4.1 m Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) telescopes Goodman High Throughput Spectrograph in order to assess whether any of these transients was likely to be an optical counterpart of the possible NSBH merger. Here, we describe the process of observing with SOAR, the analysis of our spectra, our spectroscopic typing methodology, and our resultant conclusion that none of the candidates corresponded to the gravitational wave merger event but were all instead other transients. Finally, we describe the lessons learned from this effort. Application of these lessons will be critical for a successful community spectroscopic follow-up program for LVC observing run 4 (O4) and beyond.

published proceedings

  • ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL

altmetric score

  • 7.83

author list (cited authors)

  • Tucker, D. L., Wiesner, M. P., Allam, S. S., Soares-Santos, M., Bom, C. R., Butner, M., ... Zhang, Y.

citation count

  • 5

complete list of authors

  • Tucker, DL||Wiesner, MP||Allam, SS||Soares-Santos, M||Bom, CR||Butner, M||Garcia, A||Morgan, R||Olivares E., F||Palmese, A||Santana-Silva, L||Shrivastava, A||Annis, J||García-Bellido, J||Gill, MSS||Herner, K||Kilpatrick, CD||Makler, M||Sherman, N||Amara, A||Lin, H||Smith, M||Swann, E||Arcavi, I||Bachmann, TG||Bechtol, K||Berlfein, F||Briceño, C||Brout, D||Butler, RE||Cartier, R||Casares, J||Chen, H-Y||Conselice, C||Contreras, C||Cook, E||Cooke, J||Dage, K||D’Andrea, C||Davis, TM||de Carvalho, R||Diehl, HT||Dietrich, JP||Doctor, Z||Drlica-Wagner, A||Drout, M||Farr, B||Finley, DA||Fishbach, M||Foley, RJ||Förster-Burón, F||Fosalba, P||Friedel, D||Frieman, J||Frohmaier, C||Gruendl, RA||Hartley, WG||Hiramatsu, D||Holz, DE||Howell, DA||Kawash, A||Kessler, R||Kuropatkin, N||Lahav, O||Lundgren, A||Lundquist, M||Malik, U||Mann, AW||Marriner, J||Marshall, JL||Martínez-Vázquez, CE||McCully, C||Menanteau, F||Meza, N||Narayan, G||Neilsen, E||Nicolaou, C||Nichol, R||Paz-Chinchón, F||Pereira, MES||Pineda, J||Points, S||Quirola-Vásquez, J||Rembold, S||Rest, A||Rodriguez, Ó||Romer, AK||Sako, M||Salim, S||Scolnic, D||Smith, JA||Strader, J||Sullivan, M||Swanson, MEC||Thomas, D||Valenti, S||Varga, TN||Walker, AR||Weller, J||Wood, ML||Yanny, B||Zenteno, A||Aguena, M||Andrade-Oliveira, F||Bertin, E||Brooks, D||Burke, DL||Rosell, A Carnero||Kind, M Carrasco||Carretero, J||Costanzi, M||da Costa, LN||De Vicente, J||Desai, S||Everett, S||Ferrero, I||Flaugher, B||Gaztanaga, E||Gerdes, DW||Gruen, D||Gschwend, J||Gutierrez, G||Hinton, SR||Hollowood, DL||Honscheid, K||James, DJ||Kuehn, K||Lima, M||Maia, MAG||Miquel, R||Ogando, RLC||Pieres, A||Plazas Malagón, AA||Rodriguez-Monroy, M||Sanchez, E||Scarpine, V||Schubnell, M||Serrano, S||Sevilla-Noarbe, I||Suchyta, E||Tarle, G||To, C||Zhang, Y

publication date

  • April 2022