Astrophysical sources of gravitational waves and electromagnetic counterparts
Abstract
With the advent of advanced gravitational wave observatories, the next few years should see the birth of gravitational wave astrophysics. The most likely sources for LIGO and Virgo are the inspirals and mergers of stellar mass binary systems, such as pairs of neutron stars and/or black holes. In addition to being extraordinarily loud in gravitational waves, these systems may be associated with short gamma-ray bursts and other electromagnetic phenomena, and thus may be visible in the electromagnetic spectrum. This offers the promise of multi-messenger astronomy: the combination of gravitational wave and electromagnetic observations to elucidate the physics and astrophysics of the sources. We discuss issues related to multi-messenger astronomy, including the process of identifying sources and potential scientific results.
- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #225
- Pub Date:
- January 2015
- Bibcode:
- 2015AAS...22532204H