High-energy Neutrino follow-up search of Gravitational Wave Event GW150914 with ANTARES and IceCube

TL;DR

This study conducted a joint search for high-energy neutrinos coinciding with the GW150914 gravitational wave event using IceCube and ANTARES detectors, finding no coincident neutrinos but setting limits on neutrino emission.

Contribution

First combined neutrino follow-up analysis of a gravitational wave event with IceCube and ANTARES, providing constraints on neutrino emission from GW150914.

Findings

No neutrino candidates coincident with GW150914.

Detected neutrino candidates consistent with atmospheric background.

Set upper limits on neutrino emission from the event.

Abstract

We present the high-energy-neutrino follow-up observations of the first gravitational wave transient GW150914 observed by the Advanced LIGO detectors on Sept. 14th, 2015. We search for coincident neutrino candidates within the data recorded by the IceCube and ANTARES neutrino detectors. A possible joint detection could be used in targeted electromagnetic follow-up observations, given the significantly better angular resolution of neutrino events compared to gravitational waves. We find no neutrino candidates in both temporal and spatial coincidence with the gravitational wave event. Within 500 s of the gravitational wave event, the number of neutrino candidates detected by IceCube and ANTARES were three and zero, respectively. This is consistent with the expected atmospheric background, and none of the neutrino candidates were directionally coincident with GW150914. We use this non-detection to constrain neutrino emission from the gravitational-wave event.