First Low-Latency LIGO+Virgo Search for Binary Inspirals and their Electromagnetic Counterparts

Abstract

Aims.Thedetectionandmeasurementofgravitational-wavesfromcoalescingneutron-starbinarysystemsisanimportantsciencegoalforgroundbased gravitational-wavedetectors.Inadditiontoemittinggravitational-wavesatfrequenciesthatspanthemostsensitivebandsoftheLIGOand Virgodetectors,thesesourcesarealsoamongstthemostlikelytoproduceanelectromagneticcounterparttothegravitational-waveemission.A jointdetectionofthegravitational-waveandelectromagneticsignalswouldprovideapowerfulnewprobeforastronomy. Methods.DuringtheperiodbetweenSeptember19andOctober20,2010,thefirstlow-latencysearchforgravitational-wavesfrombinaryinspirals inLIGOandVirgodatawasconducted.Theresultingtriggersweresenttoelectromagneticobservatoriesforfollowup.Wedescribethegeneration andprocessingofthelow-latencygravitational-wavetriggers.Theresultsoftheelectromagneticimageanalysiswillbedescribedelsewhere. Results.Overthecourseofthesciencerun,threegravitational-wavetriggerspassedallofthelow-latencyselectioncuts.Ofthese,onewas followedupbyseveralofourobservationalpartners.Analysisofthegravitational-wavedataleadstoanestimatedfalsealarmrateofonceevery 6.4days,fallingfarshortoftherequirementforadetectionbasedsolelyongravitational-wavedata.