Localizing gravitational wave sources with optical telescopes and combining electromagnetic and gravitational wave data

Abstract

Neutron star binaries, which are among the most promising sources for the direct detection of gravitational waves (GW) by ground based detectors, are also potential electromagnetic (EM) emitters. Gravitational waves will provide a new window to observe these events and hopefully give us glimpses of new astrophysics. In this paper, we discuss how EM information of these events can considerably improve GW parameter estimation both in terms of accuracy and computational power requirement. And then in return how GW sky localization can helpEM astronomers in follow-up studies of sourceswhich did not yield any prompt emission.We discuss how both EM source information and GWsource localization can be used in a framework of multi-messenger astronomy. We illustrate how the large error regions in GW sky localizations can be handled in conducting optical astronomy in the advance detector era. We show some preliminary results in the context of an array of optical telescopes called BlackGEM, dedicated for optical follow-up ofGWtriggers, that is being constructed in La Silla, Chile and is expected to operate concurrent to the advanced GW detectors.