A SEARCH for AN OPTICAL COUNTERPART to the GRAVITATIONAL-WAVE EVENT GW151226

Smartt, S.J. and Chambers, K.C. and Smith, K.W. and Huber, M.E. and Young, D.R. and Chen, T.-W. and Inserra, C. and Wright, D.E. and Coughlin, M. and Denneau, L. and Flewelling, H. and Heinze, A. and Jerkstrand, A. and Magnier, E.A. and Maguire, K. and Mueller, B. and Rest, A. and Sherstyuk, A. and Stalder, B. and Schultz, A.S.B. and Stubbs, C.W. and Tonry, J. and Waters, C. and Wainscoat, R.J. and Valle, M.D. and Dennefeld, M. and Dimitriadis, G. and Firth, R.E. and Fraser, M. and Frohmaier, C. and Gal-Yam, A. and Harmanen, J. and Kankare, E. and Kotak, R. and Kromer, M. and Mandel, I. and Sollerman, J. and Gibson, B. and Primak, N. and Willman, M. (2016) A SEARCH for AN OPTICAL COUNTERPART to the GRAVITATIONAL-WAVE EVENT GW151226. Astrophysical Journal Letters, 827: L40. ISSN 2041-8205

Abstract

We present a search for an electromagnetic counterpart of the gravitational-wave source GW151226. Using the Pan-STARRS1 telescope we mapped out 290 square degrees in the optical iP1 filter, starting 11.5 hr after the LIGO information release and lasting for an additional 28 days. The first observations started 49.5 hr after the time of the GW151226 detection. We typically reached sensitivity limits of iP1 = 20.3–20.8 and covered 26.5% of the LIGO probability skymap. We supplemented this with ATLAS survey data, reaching 31% of the probability region to shallower depths of m ≃ 19. We found 49 extragalactic transients (that are not obviously active galactic nuclei), including a faint transient in a galaxy at 7 Mpc (a luminous blue variable outburst) plus a rapidly decaying M-dwarf flare. Spectral classification of 20 other transient events showed them all to be supernovae. We found an unusual transient, PS15dpn, with an explosion date temporally coincident with GW151226, that evolved into a type Ibn supernova. The redshift of the transient is secure at z = 0.1747 ± 0.0001 and we find it unlikely to be linked, since the luminosity distance has a negligible probability of being consistent with that of GW151226. In the 290 square degrees surveyed we therefore do not find a likely counterpart. However we show that our survey strategy would be sensitive to NS–NS mergers producing kilonovae at DL ≲ 100 Mpc, which is promising for future LIGO/Virgo searches.