Electromagnetic Afterglows Associated with Gamma-Ray Emission Coincident with Binary Black Hole Merger Event GW150914

TL;DR

This paper models the electromagnetic afterglows of the GW150914 black hole merger, predicting radio and optical signals that can help localize the event and confirm the gamma-ray emission's origin.

Contribution

It provides a theoretical framework for detecting radio and optical afterglows from binary black hole mergers, linking gamma-ray emission to relativistic outflows and ambient gas interactions.

Findings

Radio afterglow peaks around 10^5 seconds post-merger.

Optical afterglow peaks earlier and is detectable with large telescopes.

Detectable flux levels depend on ambient matter density.

Abstract

The Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor reported the possible detection of the gamma-ray counterpart of a binary black hole merger event, GW150914. We show that the gamma-ray emission is caused by a relativistic outflow with Lorentz factor larger than 10. Subsequently, debris outflow pushes the ambient gas to form a shock, which is responsible for the afterglow synchrotron emission. We find that the 1.4 GHz radio flux peaks at $\sim10^5$ sec after the burst trigger. If the ambient matter is dense enough with density larger than $\sim10^{-2}$ cm$^{-3}$, then the peak radio flux is $\sim0.1$ mJy, which is detectable with radio telescopes such as the Very Large Array. The optical afterglow peaks earlier than the radio, and if the ambient matter density is larger than $\sim0.1$ cm$^{-3}$, the optical flux is detectable with large telescopes such as the Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam. To reveal the currently unknown mechanisms of the outflow and its gamma-ray emission associated with the binary black hole merger event, follow-up electromagnetic observations of afterglows are important. Detection of the afterglow will localize the sky position of the gravitational wave and the gamma-ray emissions, and it will support the physical association between them.