ELECTROMAGNETIC COUNTERPARTS TO BLACK HOLE MERGERS DETECTED BY LIGO

@article{Loeb2016ELECTROMAGNETICCT,
  title={ELECTROMAGNETIC COUNTERPARTS TO BLACK HOLE MERGERS DETECTED BY LIGO},
  author={Abraham Loeb},
  journal={The Astrophysical Journal Letters},
  year={2016},
  volume={819}
}
  • A. Loeb
  • Published 15 February 2016
  • Physics
  • The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Mergers of stellar-mass black holes (BHs), such as GW150914 observed by Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO), are not expected to have electromagnetic counterparts. However, the Fermi GBM detector identified a γ-ray transient 0.4 s after the gravitational wave (GW) signal GW150914 with consistent sky localization. I show that the two signals might be related if the BH binary detected by LIGO originated from two clumps in a dumbbell configuration that formed when the core… 
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170 Citations

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