A First Search for coincident Gravitational Waves and High Energy Neutrinos using LIGO, Virgo and ANTARES data from 2007

TL;DR

This study conducted the first joint search for gravitational wave bursts and high energy neutrinos using LIGO, Virgo, and ANTARES data from 2007, aiming to detect hidden astrophysical sources.

Contribution

It is the first analysis combining gravitational wave and neutrino data from LIGO, Virgo, and ANTARES to search for coincident astrophysical events.

Findings

No significant coincident events detected

Placed limits on joint emission event densities

Compared limits with merger and core-collapse event rates

Abstract

We present the results of the first search for gravitational wave bursts associated with high energy neutrinos. Together, these messengers could reveal new, hidden sources that are not observed by conventional photon astronomy, particularly at high energy. Our search uses neutrinos detected by the underwater neutrino telescope ANTARES in its 5 line configuration during the period January - September 2007, which coincided with the fifth and first science runs of LIGO and Virgo, respectively. The LIGO-Virgo data were analysed for candidate gravitational-wave signals coincident in time and direction with the neutrino events. No significant coincident events were observed. We place limits on the density of joint high energy neutrino - gravitational wave emission events in the local universe, and compare them with densities of merger and core-collapse events.