Search for gravitational waves associated with gamma-ray bursts during LIGO science run 6 and Virgo science run 2 and 3

Abstract

Wepresenttheresultsofasearchforgravitationalwavesassociatedwith154gamma-raybursts(GRBs)thatweredetectedbysatellite-basedgamma-rayexperimentsin2009-2010,duringthesixthLIGOsciencerunandthesecondandthirdVirgoscienceruns.Weperformtwodistinctsearches:amodeledsearchforcoalescencesofeithertwoneutronstarsoraneutronstarandblackhole:andasearchforgeneric,unmodeledgravitational-wavebursts.Wefindnoevidenceforgravitational-wavecounterparts,eitherwithanyindividualGRBinthissampleorwiththepopulationasawhole.ForallGRBsweplacelowerboundsonthedistancetotheprogenitor,undertheoptimisticassumptionofagravitational-waveemissionenergyof10(-2)Mc(2)at150Hz,withamedianlimitof17Mpc.ForshorthardGRBsweplaceexclusiondistancesonbinaryneutronstarandneutronstar-blackholeprogenitors,usingastrophysicallymotivatedpriorsonthesourceparameters,withmedianvaluesof16Mpcand28Mpcrespectively.Thesedistancelimits,whilesignificantlylargerthanforasearchthatisnotaidedbyGRBsatelliteobservations,arenotlargeenoughtoexpectacoincidencewithaGRB.However,projectingtheseexclusionstothesensitivitiesofAdvancedLIGOandVirgo,whichshouldbeginoperationin2015,wefindthatthedetectionofgravitationalwavesassociatedwithGRBswillbecomequitepossible.