GW170817: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Neutron Star Inspiral

• Published in: Physical review letters 2017-10, Vol.119 (16), p.161101-161101, Article 161101
• Main Authors: Abbott, B P, Abbott, R, Abbott, T D, Acernese, F, Ackley, K, Adams, C, Adams, T, Addesso, P, Adhikari, R X, Adya, V B, Affeldt, C, Afrough, M, Agarwal, B, Agathos, M, Agatsuma, K, Aggarwal, N, Aguiar, O D, Aiello, L, Ain, A, Ajith, P, Allen, B, Allen, G, Allocca, A, Altin, P A, Amato, A, Ananyeva, A, Anderson, S B, Anderson, W G, Angelova, S V, Antier, S, Appert, S, Arai, K, Araya, M C, Areeda, J S, Arnaud, N, Arun, K G, Ascenzi, S, Ashton, G, Ast, M, Aston, S M, Astone, P, Atallah, D V, Aufmuth, P, Aulbert, C, AultONeal, K, Austin, C, Avila-Alvarez, A, Babak, S, Bacon, P, Bader, M K M, Bae, S, Bailes, M, Baker, P T, Baldaccini, F, Ballardin, G, Ballmer, S W, Banagiri, S, Barayoga, J C, Barclay, S E, Barish, B C, Barker, D, Barkett, K, Barone, F, Barr, B, Barsotti, L, Barsuglia, M, Barta, D, Barthelmy, S D, Bartlett, J, Bartos, I, Bassiri, R, Basti, A, Batch, J C, Bawaj, M, Bayley, J C, Bazzan, M, Bécsy, B, Beer, C, Bejger, M, Belahcene, I, Bell, A S, Berger, B K, Bergmann, G, Bernuzzi, S, Bero, J J, Berry, C P L, Bersanetti, D, Bertolini, A, Betzwieser, J, Bhagwat, S, Bhandare, R, Bilenko, I A, Billingsley, G, Billman, C R, Birch, J, Birney, R, Birnholtz, O, Biscans, S, Biscoveanu, S, Bisht, A
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; Aérospatiale, astronomie & astrophysique; Physical, chemical, mathematical & earth Sciences; Physique, chimie, mathématiques & sciences de la terre; Space science, astronomy & astrophysics
• ISSN: 0031-9007; 1079-7114; 1079-7114
• DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.119.161101

On August 17, 2017 at 12∶41:04 UTC the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo gravitational-wave detectors made their first observation of a binary neutron star inspiral. The signal, GW170817, was detected with a combined signal-to-noise ratio of 32.4 and a false-alarm-rate estimate of less than one per 8.0×10^{4}  years. We infer the component masses of the binary to be between 0.86 and 2.26  M_{⊙}, in agreement with masses of known neutron stars. Restricting the component spins to the range inferred in binary neutron stars, we find the component masses to be in the range 1.17-1.60  M_{⊙}, with the total mass of the system 2.74_{-0.01}^{+0.04}M_{⊙}. The source was localized within a sky region of 28  deg^{2} (90% probability) and had a luminosity distance of 40_{-14}^{+8}  Mpc, the closest and most precisely localized gravitational-wave signal yet. The association with the γ-ray burst GRB 170817A, detected by Fermi-GBM 1.7 s after the coalescence, corroborates the hypothesis of a neutron star merger and provides the first direct evidence of a link between these mergers and short γ-ray bursts. Subsequent identification of transient counterparts across the electromagnetic spectrum in the same location further supports the interpretation of this event as a neutron star merger. This unprecedented joint gravitational and electromagnetic observation provides insight into astrophysics, dense matter, gravitation, and cosmology.