pith. machine review for the scientific record. sign in

arxiv: 1710.05437 · v1 · submitted 2017-10-16 · 🌌 astro-ph.HE

Recognition: unknown

Swift and NuSTAR observations of GW170817: detection of a blue kilonova

P.A. Evans , S.B. Cenko , J.A. Kennea , S.W.K. Emery , N.P.M. Kuin , O. Korobkin , R.T. Wollaeger , C.L. Fryer
show 51 more authors
K.K. Madsen F.A. Harrison Y. Xu E. Nakar K. Hotokezaka A. Lien S. Campana S.R. Oates E. Troja A.A. Breeveld F. E. Marshall S.D. Barthelmy A. P. Beardmore D.N. Burrows G. Cusumano A. D'Ai P. D'Avanzo V. D'Elia M. De Pasquale W.P. Even C.J. Fontes K. Forster J. Garcia P. Giommi B. Grefenstette C. Gronwall D.H. Hartmann M. Heida A.L. Hungerford M.M. Kasliwal H.A. Krimm A.J. Levan D. Malesani A. Melandri H. Miyasaka J.A. Nousek P.T. O'Brien J.P. Osborne C. Pagani K.L. Page D.M. Palmer M. Perri S. Pike J.L. Racusin S. Rosswog M.H. Siegel T. Sakamoto B. Sbarufatti G. Tagliaferri N.R. Tanvir A. Tohuvavohu
Authors on Pith no claims yet
classification 🌌 astro-ph.HE
keywords detectionapprox0counterpartdirectgw170817nustarobservationsorbital
0
0 comments X
read the original abstract

With the first direct detection of merging black holes in 2015, the era of gravitational wave (GW) astrophysics began. A complete picture of compact object mergers, however, requires the detection of an electromagnetic (EM) counterpart. We report ultraviolet (UV) and X-ray observations by Swift and the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope ARray (NuSTAR) of the EM counterpart of the binary neutron star merger GW170817. The bright, rapidly fading ultraviolet emission indicates a high mass ($\approx0.03$ solar masses) wind-driven outflow with moderate electron fraction ($Y_{e}\approx0.27$). Combined with the X-ray limits, we favor an observer viewing angle of $\approx 30^{\circ}$ away from the orbital rotation axis, which avoids both obscuration from the heaviest elements in the orbital plane and a direct view of any ultra-relativistic, highly collimated ejecta (a gamma-ray burst afterglow).

This paper has not been read by Pith yet.

discussion (0)

Sign in with ORCID, Apple, or X to comment. Anyone can read and Pith papers without signing in.

Forward citations

Cited by 1 Pith paper

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score.

  1. Rapid and robust simulation-based inference for kilonovae

    astro-ph.IM 2026-05 unverdicted novelty 6.0

    Simulation-based inference with a Gaussian process emulator trained on ~1300 POSSIS simulations enables rapid, robust kilonova parameter estimation that avoids MCMC biases from likelihood misspecification.