CALET Upper Limits on X-ray and Gamma-ray Counterparts of GW 151226

TL;DR

This paper reports upper limits on X-ray and gamma-ray emissions associated with the GW 151226 event using CALET, constraining possible electromagnetic counterparts and providing insights into their luminosity.

Contribution

First to set upper limits on X-ray and gamma-ray counterparts of GW 151226 with CALET observations, covering multiple energy bands and sky regions.

Findings

Placed 90% upper limit of 2 x 10^{-7} erg cm^{-2} s^{-1} in 1-100 GeV band.

CGBM upper limits are 1.0 x 10^{-6} erg cm^{-2} s^{-1} (7-500 keV) and 1.8 x 10^{-6} erg cm^{-2} s^{-1} (50-1000 keV).

Luminosity limits are 3-5 x 10^{49} erg s^{-1}, lower than typical short GRBs.

Abstract

We present upper limits in the hard X-ray and gamma-ray bands at the time of the LIGO gravitational-wave event GW 151226 derived from the CALorimetric Electron Telescope (CALET) observation. The main instrument of CALET, CALorimeter (CAL), observes gamma-rays from ~1 GeV up to 10 TeV with a field of view of ~2 sr. The CALET gamma-ray burst monitor (CGBM) views ~3 sr and ~2pi sr of the sky in the 7 keV - 1 MeV and the 40 keV - 20 MeV bands, respectively, by using two different scintillator-based instruments. The CGBM covered 32.5% and 49.1% of the GW 151226 sky localization probability in the 7 keV - 1 MeV and 40 keV - 20 MeV bands respectively. We place a 90% upper limit of 2 x 10^{-7} erg cm-2 s-1 in the 1 - 100 GeV band where CAL reaches 15% of the integrated LIGO probability (~1.1 sr). The CGBM 7 sigma upper limits are 1.0 x 10^{-6} erg cm-2 s-1 (7-500 keV) and 1.8 x 10^{-6} erg cm-2 s-1 (50-1000 keV) for one second exposure. Those upper limits correspond to the luminosity of 3-5 x 10^{49} erg s-1 which is significantly lower than typical short GRBs.