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={arXiv: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena},
  year={2016}
}
  • A. Loeb
  • Published 15 February 2016
  • Physics
  • arXiv: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Mergers of stellar-mass black holes (BHs), such as GW150914 observed by LIGO, are not expected to have electromagnetic counterparts. However, the Fermi GBM detector identified of a gamma-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 of a rapidly rotating massive star collapsed. In… 
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