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Published November 2022 | public
Journal Article Metadata-only

GROWTH on S190426c II: GROWTH-India Telescope search for an optical counterpart with a custom image reduction and candidate vetting pipeline

Kumar, Harsh ORCID icon
Bhalerao, Varun ORCID icon
Anupama, G. C. ORCID icon
Barway, Sudhanshu ORCID icon
Coughlin, Michael W. ORCID icon
De, Kishalay ORCID icon
Deshmukh, Kunal ORCID icon
Dutta, Anirban ORCID icon
Goldstein, Daniel A. ORCID icon
Jassani, Adeem ORCID icon
Joharle, Simran ORCID icon
Karambelker, Viraj
Khandagale, Maitreya
Kumar, Brajesh ORCID icon
Saraogi, Divita
Sharma, Yashvi ORCID icon
Shenoy, Vedant
Singer, Leo ORCID icon
Singh, Avinash ORCID icon
Waratkar, Gaurav ORCID icon

Abstract

S190426c/GW190426_152155 was the first probable neutron star–black hole merger candidate detected by the LIGO-Virgo Collaboration. We undertook a tiled search for optical counterparts of this event using the 0.7-m GROWTH-India Telescope. Over a period of two weeks, we obtained multiple observations over a 22.1 deg² area, with a 17.5 per cent probability of containing the source location. Initial efforts included obtaining photometry of sources reported by various groups, and a visual search for sources in all galaxies contained in the region. Subsequently, we have developed an image subtraction and candidate vetting pipeline with ∼94 per cent efficiency for transient detection. Processing the data with this pipeline, we find several transients, but none that are compatible with kilonova models. We present the details of our observations, the working of our pipeline, results from the search, and our interpretations of the non-detections that will work as a pathfinder during the O4 run of LVK.

Additional Information

The GROWTH India Telescope (GIT) is a 70-cm telescope with a 0.7-degree field of view, set up by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics and the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay with support from the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF) and the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India. It is located at the Indian Astronomical Observatory (Hanle), operated by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA). We acknowledge funding by the IITB alumni batch of 1994, which partially supports operations of the telescope. Telescope technical details are available at https://sites.google.com/view/growthindia/. This research has made use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Data base (NED), which is funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and operated by the California Institute of Technology. This research has made use of data and/or services provided by the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center. This research has made use of the VizieR catalogue access tool, CDS, Strasbourg, France (DOI : 10.26093/cds/vizier). The original description of the VizieR service was published in 2000, A&AS 143, 23. This research has made use of NASA's Astrophysics Data System. HK thanks the LSSTC Data Science Fellowship Programme, which is funded by LSSTC, NSF Cybertraining Grant #1829740, the Brinson Foundation, and the Moore Foundation; his participation in the programme has benefited this work. MC acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation with grant numbers PHY-2010970 and OAC-2117997.

Additional details

Identifiers Funding Dates
Created:
August 22, 2023
Modified:
October 24, 2023