Supernova and Prompt Gravitational-wave Precursors to LIGO Gravitational-wave Sources and Short GRBs

Erez Michaely, Hagai B. Perets
2018 Astrophysical Journal Letters  
Binary black-holes (BHs) and binary neutron-stars (NSs) mergers had been recently detected through gravitational-wave (GW) emission, with the latter followed by post-merger electromagnetic counterparts, appearing seconds up to weeks after the merger. While post-merger electromagnetic counterparts had been anticipated theoretically, very little electromagnetic precursors to GW-sources had been proposed, and non observed yet. Here we show that a fraction of a few×10^-4-10^-1 of LIGO GW-sources
more » ... short-GRBs, could be preceded by supernovae-explosions years up to decades before the merger. Each of the BH/NS-progenitors in GW-sources are thought to form following a supernova, likely accompanied by a natal velocity-kick to the newly born compact object. The evolution and natal-kicks determine the orbits of surviving binaries, and hence the delay-time between the birth of the compact-binary and its final merger through GW-emission. We use data from binary evolution population-synthesis models to show that the delay-time distribution has a non-negligible tail of ultra-short delay-times between 1-100 yrs, thereby giving rise to potentially observable supernovae precursors to GW-sources. Moreover, future LISA/DECIGO GW space-detectors will enable the detection of GW-inspirals in the pre-mergers stage weeks to decades before the final merger. These ultra-short delay-time sources could therefore produce a unique type of promptly appearing LISA/DECIGO-GW-sources accompanied by coincident supernovae. The archival (and/or direct) detection of precursor (coincident) SNe with GW and/or short-GRBs will provide unprecedented characterizations of the merging-binaries, and their prior evolution through supernovae and natal kicks, otherwise inaccessible through other means.
doi:10.3847/2041-8213/aaacfc fatcat:c4ttna53mrh6hewcf4wploef6y