Document Type
Article
Department/Program
Physics
Journal Title
Living Reviews in Relativity
Pub Date
2016
Volume
19
Abstract
We present a possible observing scenario for the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo gravitational-wave detectors over the next decade, with the intention of providing information to the astronomy community to facilitate planning for multi-messenger astronomy with gravitational waves. We determine the expected sensitivity of the network to transient gravitational-wave signals, and study the capability of the network to determine the sky location of the source. We report our findings for gravitational-wave transients, with particular focus on gravitational-wave signals from the inspiral of binary neutron-star systems, which are considered the most promising for multi-messenger astronomy. The ability to localize the sources of the detected signals depends on the geographical distribution of the detectors and their relative sensitivity, and 90% credible regions can be as large as thousands of square degrees when only two sensitive detectors are operational. Determining the sky position of a significant fraction of detected signals to areas of 5 deg(2) to 20 deg(2) will require at least three detectors of sensitivity within a factor of similar to 2 of each other and with a broad frequency bandwidth. Should the third LIGO detector be relocated to India as expected, a significant fraction of gravitational-wave signals will be localized to a few square degrees by gravitational-wave observations alone.
Recommended Citation
Abbott, B. P.; Abbott, R.; Abernathy, M. R.; Mikhailov, Eugeniy E.; Rew, H.; Romanov, G.; and Zhang, M., Prospects for Observing and Localizing Gravitational-Wave Transients with Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo (2016). Living Reviews in Relativity, 19.
10.1007/lrr-2016-1
DOI
10.1007/lrr-2016-1
