An Infrared Search for Kilonovae with the WINTER Telescope. I. Binary Neutron Star Mergers

• Published in: arXiv.org 2022-02
• Main Authors: Frostig, Danielle, Biscoveanu, Sylvia, Mo, Geoffrey, Karambelkar, Viraj, Tito Dal Canton, Hsin-Yu, Chen, Kasliwal, Mansi, Katsavounidis, Erik, Lourie, Nathan P, Simcoe, Robert A, Vitale, Salvatore
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Binary stars; Black holes; Gravitational waves; Kilonovae; Mathematical models; Near infrared radiation; Neutron stars; Neutrons; Parameter estimation; Simulation; Star mergers; Telescopes; Toolkits
• ISSN: 2331-8422
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2110.01622

The Wide-Field Infrared Transient Explorer (WINTER) is a new 1 \(\text{deg}^2\) seeing-limited time-domain survey instrument designed for dedicated near-infrared follow-up of kilonovae from binary neutron star (BNS) and neutron star-black hole mergers. WINTER will observe in the near-infrared Y, J, and short-H bands (0.9-1.7 microns, to \(\text{J}_{AB}=21\) magnitudes) on a dedicated 1-meter telescope at Palomar Observatory. To date, most prompt kilonova follow-up has been in optical wavelengths; however, near-infrared emission fades more slowly and depends less on geometry and viewing angle than optical emission. We present an end-to-end simulation of a follow-up campaign during the fourth observing run (O4) of the LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA interferometers, including simulating 625 BNS mergers, their detection in gravitational waves, low-latency and full parameter estimation skymaps, and a suite of kilonova lightcurves from two different model grids. We predict up to five new kilonovae independently discovered by WINTER during O4, given a realistic BNS merger rate. Using a larger grid of kilonova parameters, we find that kilonova emission is \(\approx\)2 times longer-lived and red kilonovae are detected \(\approx\)1.5 times further in the infrared than in the optical. For 90% localization areas smaller than 150 (450) \(\rm{deg}^{2}\), WINTER will be sensitive to more than 10% of the kilonova model grid out to 350 (200) Mpc. We develop a generalized toolkit to create an optimal BNS follow-up strategy with any electromagnetic telescope and present WINTER's observing strategy with this framework. This toolkit, all simulated gravitational-wave events, and skymaps are made available for use by the community.