Gravitational wave optical counterpart searching based on GRAWITA and DLT40 project during LIGO O2 run

TL;DR

This paper discusses methods used during LIGO O2 to identify electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational wave events, employing wide-field tiling and galaxy-targeted searches to handle large sky localization uncertainties.

Contribution

It compares and applies two complementary search strategies, GRAWITA's wide-field tiling and DLT40's galaxy-targeted approach, for EM counterpart detection during LIGO O2.

Findings

Effective combination of wide-field and galaxy-targeted searches enhances EM counterpart detection.

Demonstrated feasibility of rapid EM follow-up during LIGO O2 run.

Improved localization techniques for GW events with large sky uncertainties.

Abstract

The identification of the electromagnetic(EM) counterpart of gravitational wave(GW) trigger in the sky localization is a very difficult task because of the large uncertainty. Two complementary approaches are used in order to search for EM counterpart of GW signal with a typical large sky localization uncertainty: wide-field tilling search on high probability GW region, e.g. Gravitational Wave Inaf Team(GRAWITA) project or pointed search of selected galaxies in high probability GW region, e.g. Distance Less Than 40 Mpc survey(DLT40) project.